Elearning Curve Blog

Irish Govt Announces New Approach to Primary Teaching

The Irish government is introducing a scheme that will transform primary teach by turning regular school classrooms into operant conditioning chambers. According to Dept. of Education spokesman, Dr. Aibreáin Ó Amadain, “we are convinced that this is the most effective way to educate young minds.”

Dr. Ó Amadain continued,

We have found that the “Golden Age of Education” coincided with the use of…

It’s not the end of the world, you know

Today’s blog post is about education in general. Whether it’s the Leaving Certificate (the final course in the Irish secondary school system), SATs in the US, O- and A-Levels in the UK, or Le Bacin France, I’m sure you’re familiar with the day of reckoning just-finished second-level students are facing about now as their examination results are published in advance of matriculation for…

Is informal learning this year’s L&D Fortnight?

According to the EU, informal learning is becoming Formal:

Formal learning strategies, like classroom-based training, provide structured content, but they don’t allow learners the freedom to make organic discoveries. If you want to bring deep learning opportunities to your workforce you’re going to have to look beyond the confines of the conference room and make room for informal (link is…

More on defining e-learning, elearning, eLearning…

As I wrote in my last article, I’ve a preference for Don Morrison’s definition of e-learning:

The continuous assimilation of knowledge and skills by adults stimulated by synchronous and asynchronous learning events – and sometimes Knowledge management outputs – which are authored, delivered engaged with, supported and administered using internet technologies.

(2004, p.4)

I also treated of the…

Towards a Definition of E-learning, 2

In his highly influential 2001 text E-Learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age, Marc J Rosenberg argues that e-learning is based on three fundamental criteria (pp.8-29):

E-learning is networkedmaking it capable of updating, storage and retrieval, distribution and sharing of instruction or information. So important is this criteria that Rosenberg describes it as fast…

Towards a Definition of Elearning

Over the last year or so here at E-Learning Curve Blog Towers, I’ve been building a theoretical and conceptual framework for how I approach elearning, beginning with an interpretation of a general theoretical view about how learners learn, through the multifaceted approaches of Constructivism. I began to place this in the context of learning in organisations, and even touched on how…

History of Informal Learning: the Early Years

The emergence of digital / digitisation / digitalization is forcing organisations to rethink and evaluate how workers learn and how to support effective performance. How do people learn? Why? What accounts for the upswing in interest in informal learning? Does it work?

In the corporate context, learning is about mastering technical and social skills, as well as product and services’ knowledge.…

Is Informal Learning the Way Forward?

Informal learning should no longer be regarded as an inferior form of learning whose main purpose is to act as the precursor of formal learning; it needs to be seen as fundamental, necessary and valuable in its own right, at times directly relevant to employment and at other times not relevant at all.

(Coffield 2000, p8)

Given the ease of access to publicly available information and knowledge via…

Constructivism 13: Double Loop Learning

As we discussed last time, Argyris and Schön suggest two responses to mismatches between between intention and outcome: these  can be seen in the notion of single and double loop learning. For Argyris and Schön (1978, p.2), learning involves the detection and correction of error. In single-loop learning (see Figure 2), when outcomes do not match expectation the initial reaction of knowledge…

Constructivism 12: Single Loop Learning

In Organizational learning: A theory of action perspective, Chris Argyris and Donald Schön suggest that each member of an organisation constructs their own representation of the actual, tacit, applied organisational behaviours, also called its “theory-in-use” (1978, p.16).Argyris and Schön modelled theory-in-use to investigate its three components

Table 1 Components of theory-in-use (after Liane…

Constructivism 11: Organizational Learning

In their 1974 work Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness, Chris Argyris and Donald Schön support the Constructivist argument that individuals (and in the context of this article, knowledge workers) have schemata or mental maps both for their skill assets and they contend, with regard to how to act in situations. This directs the way they plan their activities, execute their…

Constructivism 10: More Mindtools

In the context of mindtools, significantly, Jonassen et al point out that learning is not restricted to formal learning environments, and that learners can “acquire sophisticated skills and advanced knowledge in natural learning situations” (1998, p. 28). As we discussed last time, there are eight characteristics of constructivist learning environments. Computer-based technologies can be used as…

David H. Jonassen, with his colleagues Chad Carr and Hsiu-Ping Yeuh in Computers as Mindtools for Engaging Learners in Critical Thinking, (1998) proposes that learning is an active and creative process in that information is processed “mindfully” (p.30), since the learner not only collects information but also constructs a format for representing that information and transforming it into…

Constructivism 8: Challenges of Elearning

In the next article in this series, we’ll explore Mindtools in detail. In preparation, today’s post outlines some of the challenges of elearning in the Constructivist context. In 2001, David Jonassen argued that “most e-learning replicates the worst features of face-to-face instruction. So, it may be cheaper to ‘deliver’ knowledge over the Internet, but it will not be more effective” (“Interview…

Constructivism 7: Social Learning cont’d

Continuing our exploration of social learning…

In terms of a learner’s cognitive development, Vygotsky argues that learning precedes development. As developmental processes lag behind learning processes, less experienced or developed individuals can often carry out tasks with the help of others when they could not accomplish these tasks independently. The knowledge, behaviours and skills that…

Constructivism 6: Social Learning

As I will discuss in a later article in this series about Constructivism, I believe that knowledge working is intimately bound within the organisational context: knowledge workers use their skills and experience to innovate solutions to real-world problems. What is Social Learning One of the primary conditions of knowledge working is the social learning aspect. Knowledge workers typically…