They typically don’t really address the andragogical side — design done by learners to more deeply situate their learning in practice (and Communities of Practice). This is not to say that it’s not included — Wiggins and McTighe’s “performance tasks” (in assessment) often includes some sort of learner design activity, and Bloom’s Analyze, Evaluate, Create are learner design activities — but these are often minimal or missing from “one-page” documents.

Perhaps more important, and missing in most, is the need to include and foster a community of practice (CoP) around these activities. Peer review is the gold standard in academic research, but higher education, like K-12, is hanging on to authoritarian, one-expert, models of assessment, where the instructor has the answer. This minimizes opportunities for students to develop in Bloom’s “Analysis” and “Evaluation” categories. Peer (CoP) assessment opportunities also provide development of Communication, which Bloom’s taxonomy misses.

It turns out that there’s not a lot out there (in higher ed) about learning by designing/creating authentic activities for a community of practice. This is partly because as originally visioned it tied together three aspects of learning that are often discussed individually, but less often together: Adult Learning, Constructionism, and Communities of Practice.

Designers will tell you that they learn a lot about the content of a field by designing for it. They need to live in the community to succeed. Their design needs to work, but it also needs to fit the social/cultural norms of the field closely enough for them to accept it. The best designs actually evolve the field — they’re close enough to the norms to be accepted, but change the behavior and sometimes attitudes/assumptions/paradigms of the field (Kuhn, 1959).

This is the goal of adult education: to groom active members of a field, who have the experience and agency to contribute new knowledge to a given field/discipline.

They need experience to do this. They need practice communicating with others in the field. They need opportunities to succeed (and fail) in the creation of new knowledge in the field — ideally enough low-stakes failures in school so that when they get to high sakes situations in the field, they’re not afraid to try, and they have enough experience to know what works and what doesn’t. Thus the need for Design Learning.

Here are some resources that are foundational to this: 

In some ways, Malcolm Knowles’ Adragogy has the simplest version, and this sitehas a pretty good/accessible overview (including slideshow). One key: “Adult learners should play a role in creating and evaluating learning content.” The go-to article: Knowles, M. S. (1996).  Adult learning.  In Craig, R. L., (ed.).  ASTD Training & Development Handbook:  A Guide to Human Resource Development, Fourth Edition.  New York:  McGraw Hill.

Though it doesn’t focus enough on the socio-cultural aspects, and is generally limited to tech and making tangible items, the principles behind Papert’s Constructionism are pretty foundational.

Tying learning design activities and sociocultural aspects to adult learning, Hansman’s (2008) Adult Learning in Communities of Practice: Situating Theory in Practice discusses the need for a community of practice:

excerpt: “Situated views of learning maintain that people learn as they interact with and within a community of practice, gaining understanding while participating and shaping its history, assumptions, cultural values, and rules (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Fenwick, 2000; Wenger, 1998).”

Hansman and Williams (2002) have another piece (Situating Cognition: Knowledge and Power in Context) that discusses, among other things, the importance of learner-agency in CoPs, being able to contribute their own designs/solutions to the community rather than just taking on the “expert” models: 

Excerpt: Concepts of cognitive apprenticeships, for example, are another way in which the theories of situated cognition may be misunderstood and misused.  Apprenticeships are typically defined and understood as a student serving an expert – further reifying the hegemonic notions that there are great differences between “experts” and “just plain folks.”  JPF’ are “depersonalized and devalued further; no longer ‘folks,’ they are perceived and theorized as JPF’s.  The knowledge of JPF’s is not seen as belonging to individual persons emerging from life problems and situations; rather, it become an exploitable resource for the institutions of schooling and research” (Damarin, 1996a, p. 83).  As Lave (1988) discusses in her work, some students “hide” the effective strategies they developed as “just plain folks” so that teachers believe that they solved problems in the “approved” school way, thus illustrating Gidden’s (1984) notion of recursive constitution: social practices, like education, both produce effects as they reproduce the practices themselves.

Many of LEAP’s high impact practices overlap with the essential learning outcomes, and mobile can address them in similar fashion.

A mobile tour of the campus can orient new students, but a collaborative game-based mobile activity can provide students with both orientation and exploratory adventures (Common Intellectual Experiences) that connect them to both the campus and others in their cohort. First-Year Seminars and Experiences that incorporate multiple mobile field trips can greatly enhance student connection to campus and community. Mobile provides easy 24/7 access to others in their Learning Communities, which aids in Collaborative Assignments and Projects, including Writing-Intensive Courses. Opportunities for field-based, and community-based Undergraduate Research are broadened when students have mobile access to research tools and support of peers and instructors to answer questions in the field. Sharing data from that research, as well as sharing Diversity/Global Learning experiences, Service Learning, Community-Based Learning, and experiences in Internships to be reflected upon and commented on by peers becomes simpler when location-tagged photographs, videos, text, and audio can be shared directly from the mobile device that students carry with them. Capturing experiences in the moment also support the reflective work involved in Capstone Courses and Projects.

I’ve been thinking about AAC&U’s Essential Learning Outcomes, and how mobile might address them.

• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World: Mobile devices allow engagement with content beyond the classroom. With devices in their pockets, they can explore their local communities in order to address issues that affect the global world. They can collect scientific and cultural data that affects their local communities, and work with that very authentic, very situated data, in order to learn the processes of data manipulation in different fields.
• Intellectual and Practical Skills, Including Inquiry and analysis, Critical and creative thinking, Written and oral communication, Quantitative literacy, Information literacy, and Teamwork and problem solving: The intimate and connected nature of personal mobile devices — as powerful computers that connect users 24/7 to each other, to expert knowledge, to data systems, etc. — offer opportunities for “anywhere, anytime” learning, and “just-in-time” access to information, peer and expert mentorship, and challenges that are appropriate to their level of readiness (game-like challenges). These opportunities need no longer limited to the classroom, or structured into “class-sized” chunks, where the entire class needs to progress at the same rate/speed throughout a semester. The personal nature of these computers allows the development of smaller learning objects/challenges that students can complete on their own or in collaborative groups. Methods of assessment can follow that in video games, where learning is demonstrated in the accomplishment of the challenge.
• Personal and Social Responsibility, Including Civic knowledge and engagement—local and global, Intercultural knowledge and competence, Ethical reasoning and action, and Foundations and skills for lifelong learning: Again, by freeing learning from the confines of the classroom or campus, more opportunities open  to engage in real-world challenges  in the community while staying on task and connected to instructors and peer students.
• Integrative and Applied Learning, Including Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general and specialized studies: Mobile devices that are connected each other and to academic databases, allow a scaffolded application of knowledge in apprenticeship models. Learners can demonstrate their knowledge in community applications, with the assurance that, if needed, they have access to others in the field (instructor, peers, databases, resources) via their mobile connection. If they get stuck, they are a text message away from connecting with a solution. Data collection questions in the field (e.g. have I correctly identified this invasive species?) can be reviewed by peers and experts in order to save time and provide immediate correction and feedback.

A teaching and learning strategy that leverages students’ own existing devices and practices would cost the university less in terms of providing equipment (they already have it) and training (they already know how to use it). Students currently effectively need a desktop — and increasingly a laptop — computer to “do college” because there is little support for learning on their less-expensive mobile devices. If students had, for example, lower cost, lightweight, tablet computers that had a long enough battery life to not require outlets in classrooms, it could change the format of classroom learning as well as realize significant savings in infrastructure costs. The form factor of tablets encourages easier side-by-side sharing and sharing with the entire class. The multi-touch screen allows peer collaboration or competition in learning activities.

Because mobile devices are ultra portable, with long-battery life, and often 3G connectivity and location-sensing capabilities, they would be fabulous tools for innovative approaches to hybrid and online courses. Courses could meet online in distributed environments at a distance, and also be more fully connected in potentially distracting field locations. For example, a class trip to the Arboretum could work both independently or in groups to collect photographs and sightings of species, while being given increasingly difficult quests by the instructor, and called back to meet as a face-to-face group through the mobile devices. In a Distance Education scenario, the same activities could be assigned and carried out at local parks across the country, with live reporting and sharing of results and immediate peer- and instructor- feedback.

As eTexts based on the ePub format and authoring tools such as Apple’s iBooks proliferate, they could further decrease the cost of textbooks by lowering the barriers to creating and distributing class-specific readers. Instructors could incorporate student demonstration of course content through authentic learning projects such as student-created (and peer and instructor-reviewed) eTexts.

Without connecting to any specific programs or lists, it deftly covers many of the points I’ve been trying to make in a much longer piece that I’m working on. Connie answers “What’s different about Mobile Learning” with the following eight short sub-headings and brief explanations.

Mobile is:

• Supportive
• Collaborative
• Gestural
• Learner-centric
• Informal Contextual
• User-Generated
• Fun
• Sensitive and Connected

1. Partnerships that build on strengths, where one unit’s strengths and energy can complement another’s (Tom in Folklore and Mary in Comp Lit)
2. Institutes that can house specialized, interdisciplinary paths (Greg in Nelson Institute)
3. Modularizations and certifications, where departments can host smaller, more specialized sessions (Gale in Nursing, and Judith in Slavic Languages)

What is the other side of that coin? Can we do this with students as well? In a specialized world, do they need to get a (general) degree in department x? Or should students (could they?) chart a path that builds on their strengths and team up to create their own more specialized degrees?For example, if a student had interests in Engineering but strengths in Graphic Design, she might currently:

• get a double major,
• choose to go with her strength in order to find a job, but forego her interest
• choose to go with her interest (follow passion), and hope that there were opportunities in her coursework to practice what she excels at

But wouldn’t it be wonderful if she could chart her own path between the two in order to create a specialized degree that balances her strengths and interests, and gives her powerful practical experiences in interdisciplinary work with others who will often not share her interests, but can benefit from her skills; and vice-versa. With a talented graphic artist on their team, her engineering peers will be able to draw on her strengths and create things that they’d otherwise not even attempt, and she’d be a valuable/integral part of an engineering project that she might not otherwise have the chops to join. With specialized members in the learning teams, all the members benefit and learn from each other, and can take their learning further than they otherwise might be able to.

Students are used to this model in video games, such as World of Warcraft. They start with a character, get their feet wet doing everything for the first 10 or so levels (15 hours of gameplay). Then they begin to specialize based on what they’ve found that they do well, and where their interests lie. For the next 70 levels (1000 hours of gameplay*) they adjust and refine their specializations, tracking every accomplishment with certifications (badges), and experience points (XPs), moving up from level to level, where they can go on more challenging quests.

After level 10, they are introduced to collaborative quests where they need to team up with other players who have different skill sets. For example, they may need to make it through a “dungeon” inhabited by a mix of creatures and challenges that could destroy any of them, or even a group of players with a similar skill set. But by learning to work with players who have different abilities and interests (and many who are real jerks, just like real life), they can pool and draw on each others’ talents, learn to trust and appreciate others’ abilities, and succeed together as a group.

The challenges increase in complexity, and by level 40 or 50 (300 hours of play), the group size and complexity needed to succeed also grows. By level 60 they may be engaging in quests where 20-30 players need to work together to succeed.

Meanwhile, our standard university graphic design student is getting a generic degree, with no practical experience in the field she is passionate about — no amazing projects where she steps outside of the graphic design department to work on real projects.

How do we build a university-sanctioned talent tree for her?

I’m starting to solicit bids on replacing my steps. Here’s the short of it:

I’ve got a 2-flat with this 7×11′ first floor bathroom addition with rickety old steps that leads up to a deck and the “main entrance” for the second floor apartment.

Since I need to replace the steps, I’d like to wrap them around to the side of the house (right side of 2nd pic).

I would like to cover them so I don’t have to shovel my way out of the 2nd floor apartment in winter. As long as I’m doing that, it seems smart to extend the shed-style dormer roof (pic 2) and build a 3-season porch over the addition and steps.

I’d like to eventually (not now, due to lack of funds) finish the 3-season porch, adding a huge window on the east side (camera side of 1st pic). This would be a lovely entrance to the 2nd floor apartment, and would give the apartment a very nice open space.

Ideally, I’d like the space 8×11, over the footprint of the existing addition’s eave.

Something like this…

Mission

In the ComETS GAME DESIGN group, we will try to model what we investigate. So, we’ll be doing playful hands-on research/investigation, and application/testing of what we find.

Objectives

• host a 90-minute meeting twice a month
• deconstruct compelling games that require a lot of cognitive work (and/or busywork, or “grinding”)
• figure out what makes them compelling
• apply that magic formula to various coursework situations
• share results with peers/colleagues

Please email johnmartin@wisc.edu for more information.

“We developed this publishing system (at great cost, no doubt), and are willing to give it away for free to anyone who would like to use it to create and freely distribute cool eTexts. If you want to profit from it (industries), we’re taking 30% to cover the cost of continued development of this and other cool tools. If you’re just looking for an easy-to-use, and elegant tool for getting your knowledge out to the world for free (schools, non-profits, self-publishing authors), you’re welcome to use it for free.”

Unlike the status quo method of paying for software, Apple is not requiring an upfront payment. Consider the model behind Adobe’s DPS, to use it for a one-off publication costs $395 (plus Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, plus a suitable computer that runs the software). Then you’re allowed to profit from that one-off as much as you can with no extra fees, right? Apple flips that around and says that iBooks Author is free to use (plus cost of suitable computer that runs the software) to create dynamic iBooks content that looks and runs amazing on their iOS — but also as a pretty decent PDF creator that displays (non-dynamic content) well on any browser.

I also bet we’ll see people “trying out” (prototyping) ideas for books here — something they might not have had the where-with-all to even approach before and if they think they’ve got a hit might decide to either publish with Apple or reformat with some other system to sell for more than 70% profit.

But for not-for-profit uses, it seems okay. For example, the director of a senior center might want residents actively engaged in creating a legacy artifact for their children, but don’t have the publishing expertise to pull them through the process? This seems like a fabulous tool for seniors to pretty easily publish a cool autobiography or family lineage book. They wouldn’t (typically) want to sell it to their family, but would want it to be cool enough to engage the next generation.

• You say that you’re a non-profit community health organization that wants to get good-looking, easy-to-read health information out free to your clients, but can’t afford Adobe?
• You say that you’re a teacher who wants to create course readers or study guides for your course, but don’t want to force your students to  buy textbooks?
• You say that you’re a graduate student, passionate about your research, but suspicious of the journal system, and you’d like to get your research into the hands of as many people as possible?

If you want to profit from it, and manage to do so, then you pay.

It’s a private version of a tax system – i.e. as a citizen (user), you’re free to use services (Fire, Police, etc.) as long as you don’t profit from them. If you profit from it, there’s a 30% tax to subsidize services for those who don’t. It’s definitely a bold shift from the status quo of software. But terrible? I don’t know yet.

First, a redirect — let’s take “mobile” out of it and look at the ideals of a Learning Strategy. Then, let’s consider how “mobile” could support that learning strategy.

Learning Strategy (Ideal)

1. Comprehensive: Rather than develop a bunch of different systems, one framework that incorporates all aspects of the university would be ideal.
2. Student-centered: If we approach that strategy from the perspective of student learning, we’ll need to recognize and address the fact that “classroom learning” (and much of what the current traditional university systems are built to address) are but one piece of the university experience for students. Our strategy must “play nice” with the other priorities of students to be incorporated fully into their lives.
3. Cost-Effective: Since we know that the most successful students are those who identify as being members of learning communities, the strategy must support student integration into, and development within, learning communities. Community support minimizes floundering time, and more fully immerses students into their career fields, minimizing the amount of time needed to finish school.
4. Personalized: Given that much of education is about the development of a personal path within a generalized curriculum, the strategy should support easy personalization, and allow flexibility for students to engage in learning activities in ways that both meet their learning preferences and challenge them to develop skills navigating alternative pedagogical techniques that others may employ/prefer.
5. Active: Embodied, experiential learning activities, such as lab work, group projects, presentation, and fieldwork can be pedagogically-powerful activities. The strategy should provide support for these types of activities by, for example, offering access to learning resources (content, process, mentoring) whenever students are engaged in learning.

Given these five ideals (and there may be others), let’s examine the role that mobile can play.

Mobile support for Learning Strategy

One feature/constraint of mobile devices is their size/portability. On one hand, they’re small and thus less effective for much rich content delivery (large visualizations, deep reading, etc.). On the other hand, their portability makes them amazing conduits for just-in-time connections to information, friends, and expertise — lightweight prompts that still put much of the learning on the individual.

1. Comprehensive: Mobile can support easy, anywhere, anytime access to a surface layer of all aspects of UW. This is great for reminders, prompts, and time and place-based notifications, but perhaps less effective for in-depth investigations of websites, texts, visually-rich lectures, seminar-style discussions, etc.
2. Student-centered: Mobile can play a huge role in supporting student schedules, and connections to classes, jobs, classmates, student orgs, family, friends, finances, food, laundry, sports. If students juggles it, it should be easily supported and accessible from their mobile devices.
3. Cost-Effective: Because mobile devices are intimate (pocket/purse/bedside) and accessible 24/7, students use them. We should tap into that by making their access to their UW life as seamless as possible — e.g. already-trusted personal devices should not require multiple logins (on small screens with tiny keyboards) to access their information. Let them choose to rely on their lockscreen password. If it’s a PITA to get to their “UW learning stuff” they won’t, and it won’t be cost effective. If they use the structure we provide, they will use it to develop their academic identity, and more effectively find their niche/identity in learning and affinity groups.
4. Personalized: For this, consider mobile’s role not as a content delivery system, but a route or means to connect with other learners. Perhaps the most effective way to allow personalization is to foster the peer-to-peer connections with like-minded learners in their learning communities. Fostering learning communities may also be the most effective way to challenge them to translate learning into formats that others prefer/understand.
5. Active: Mobile can support field research and investigation including citizen-science, citizen journalism, place-based investigations, tours, and interviewing. It can also provide portable spaces for note-taking and collaboration (e.g. peer review).