Hello!

Hello Readers!

My name is Emma and am currently studying a Bachelor of Learning Management Primary at the Bundaberg Campus.

This blog will be a place for me to analyse a range of eLearning tools that will be presented throughout the duration of this course according to ICT learning design frameworks. These frameworks include the Learning Engagement Theory, Oliver's Learning Design Framework and the Active Learning Framework.

The Learning Engagement Theory is a framework for technology based teaching and learning. Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) state that, "the fundamental idea underlying engagement theory is that students must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks." According to this statement, it can be derived that technology based learning can faciliate ways of student engagement which may be difficult to accomplish via other ways of learning in the classroom. "Engagement theory is based upon the idea of creating successful collaborative teams that work on ambitious projects that are meaningful to someone outside the classroom," (Kearsley and Shneiderman, 1999). When students are involved in engaged learning, they are involved with active cognitive processes which include creating, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making, and evaluation.

Oliver's Learning Design framework suggests that learning needs to be constructivist and collaboratively based. Learning activities within a technology based environment play an important role in determining learning outcomes (Oliver, 1999). Oliver (1999) goes on to say that "they (learning activities) determine how the learners will engage with the course materials and the forms of knowledge construction that will take place.They need to engender cooperative and collaborative activities among the cohort and in doing so, must provide opportunities for reflection and articulation. The activities must provide the purpose and the context for learners to deal with the content and information."

The final design framework that I will be using to analyse the eLearning tools throughout the course is the Active Learning Framework. This framework is concerned about "activity-based learning experiences: input, process, and output. These activity-based experiences take many shapes whole class involvement, teams, small groups, trios, pairs, individuals," (ACU, 2000). ACU (2000) goes on to say that "activity-based experiences take many forms talking, writing, reading, discussing, debating, acting, role-playing, journaling, conferring, interviewing, building, creating, and the list continues."

As I analyse each eLearning tool, I will be making links to how these tools correspond in regards to the above mentioned learning frameworks.

References:

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999) Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Accessed 12 August 2009 on the World Wide Web: http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education 20(2), p.240-254. Accessed 12 August 2009 on the World Wide Web: http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/410324_751318839_739485300.pdf

The Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teacher Excellence (2000) What is Active Learning? Accessed 12 August 2009 on the World Wide Web: http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whatisal.htm)