Flipped Instruction?

This afternoon we had one of our creative meetings, where we just share what we are doing in an informal way.

We had a chat about some developments we are making with learning design in an eLearning product and using presenters.  It got me thinking. What if we flipped the instruction in an eLearning product?!  In a reply I said, "what about flipping the instruction of the delivery in eLearning products"?

Basically, using a presenter like a real person or avatar that usually gives you instructions.  But what about flipping this and allowing the learner to be the presenter.  It would be like a role play situation, building on from my last post; Games, the main driver of learning?  The learner is the presenter or character in the eLearning product.  The learner is not sat there being a passive individual, which is the usual case.  The learner is driving the eLearning product and achieving or collecting the learning objectives as they go through it.

I think this would be a great strategy to motivate, engage and get people involved when participating in eLearning products.  There's not enough in them.  Most are just commercial products that have little impact or meaning to users, just quick fix solutions.  That is not quality eLearning.

I've got a great plan for developing highly interactive eLearning products that is going to be different.  This is just one strategy that's in there that I am going to try.

This idea just came from a conversation.  It just shows true evidence from meaningful conversations you can have that invokes ideas and development!

Games, the main driver of learning?

I've been seeing and reading lots about games in education, more than I have before.  Games have always had a significant part of the learning process.  But recently I have seen games have more emphasis and prominence on education as a main driver.

Nolan Bushnell said that if you want a permanent memory, you just have to repeat games by:

• Review learning made today (after a good sleep)
• Review the learning in a week
• Review the learning in a month

And apparently, you will never forget anything.

I'm not a big gamer or lover.  However, I do LOVE Pokémon!  I have since I was younger.

A few weeks ago I introduced my partner to Pokémon for the first time.  It was lovely to observe this!  Apart from him being totally consumed by it all day haha, we did have a chat about the actual game.  Like me, he likes the role playing games, where you play a character through a journey as such.  When we had a chat and he said he likes role playing games as you start off with a basic character and build it up throughout the game.  Pokémon is all about this and you have to interact with people to receive and access things, as well as training the sprites up and developing strategies to win battles and gym badges, as the sprites have different qualities and types that are good and bad against other ones.

You do all this without realising it.  Building up skills and knowledge as you go along.  It kind of reflects real life; building yourself up for the real world, so to speak.

I mean I used to be obsessed with Theme Hospital too when I was younger.  Managing my own hospital through medical services and staffing.  For a kid, this is pretty advanced, but I enjoyed it.  Emphasis on the fun element!

Games incorporate interaction, peer collaboration and competition.  And as I said above, games should be FUN!  It helps get people motivated to learn and learn with passion; exciting people with what they are doing.

But, we should be addicted to learning, not the game itself!  So how can we do this?  Let the critical thinking begin!

Observing ILT

From my previous post on Online Observing, I said I would create a set of guidelines to observe learning taking place outside of the classroom.  My idea evolved during it's making and I thought to myself, well it's not just outside of the classroom, it's inside the classroom as well.  So I decided to approach the use of Information Learning Technologies (ILT) as a whole and not just one area that reflects face-to-face delivery.  I acquired the following from my employer and started to build a brief framework to develop it further.  As you can see this is not really ILT, is very loose wording and extremely unhelpful.

Current ILT question on the organisation's observation form:
Was ILT used to support learning?

Some responses retrieved from observation reports:
“Effective use of a video clip.”
“Yes by the use of PowerPoint.”
“Moodle used effectively with resources to support learning.”

Another reason why this is important is for your own role.  In your role you may be subject observations as part of organisational requirements by your employer and/or awarding body.  Your current observations may include how you embedded ILT within your practices.  As this is a broad task, specific developmental feedback may not be as strong as it could be.  The feedback you obtain would benefit from saying what is actually being done with learners using ILT.  The following descriptors will help the observer to achieve this and also act as a set of guidelines.  They will help the observer to identify and examine the use of ILT in the learning activity/ies that occur within and outside the classroom.  The feedback generated will help capture good practice as well as improvements to move forward the creative use of ILT.  This can also be used as a reflective tool to enhance own practices in the use of ILT.

Aim:
Observe and examine the use of learning technology in the learning activity/ies that occur within and outside the classroom.

Objective:
Recognise the difference between IT and ILT use to encourage active participation and enjoyment to enhance the learning experience. Below are questions to act as guidelines when observing ILT activities:

• Identify the technology and/or eLearning approach used.
• Explain the learning activity/ies that are being used with the technology.
• Describe if and how all learners are engaged.
• Identify how all learners are fully participating in the activity/ies.
• Describe how learners are set challenging tasks that build on and extend their learning with the technology.
• Describe differentiation approaches with the use of technology.
• Describe how learners are given frequent feedback during the activity/ies within the technology.
• Describe any supporting resources used with the technology.
• Identify how learners were given the opportunity to evaluate their learning experience of the technology.

EDIT:  During the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2020 I was asked the following by one of my FE educator friends which made me think of this blog post.

"Hey, can I pick your brains?  I’ve been asked to think about how we could do observations of distance/online learning...any ideas?

Thoughts so far are...

• looking at planning and outcomes over delivery
• looking at recorded webinars
• quality of tutorials online through records made on ProMonitor

Any other ideas?"

My immediate thoughts were:

These are good ideas.

What about:

• Evidence of tutors determining the right technologies to support the intended activity, i.e. synchronous (real time) over asynchronous (not real time) technologies
• Adequate planning documentation and back up plans should synchronous online teaching fail.  What other staff support do they need, i.e. additional tutor support, technical help
• Consistency of technology used?  Is everyone using something different?  That could affect the quality and experience for learners across different courses
• Depending what is used, I.e. MS Teams you could join the online session and 'sit at the back'  Observe tutor practice and online facilitation skills, listen and see how learners participate during it
• Examine online facilitating techniques too, not just technical abilities but how they include learners and monitor their learning throughout etc
• How tutors share their practice and lessons learned from their experience with others
• I've not re-read this, but a previous blog post 'Observing ILT' could be useful