In a skype meeting this morning I was asked the question – Are you a constructivist? I hesitated briefly and responded “Yes, I think I am.” I went onto to add… I am If you hold that a constructivist is one who believes we learn by making meaningful connections.
I have been pondering my hesitation and attribute it to the fact that I was debating whether or not go into the full blow definition of contructivism or use the shorthand definition that I have been using most recently- we learn by making meaningful connections.
As a result of this exchange I have reviewed Jerome Bruner’s (1960) definition of learning which states:
Learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. The learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so. Cognitive structure (i.e., schema, mental models) provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows the individual to “go beyond the information given”.
An active process of constructing new ideas based on new and old information is what I mean when I state learning is the making of meaningful connections. It has been over 20 years since I first studied Bruner’s work and recognized that his definition of learning and his theory of instruction offered a sound foundation for creating significant learning environments. It is good to reflect on where our current beliefs come from and to confirm how we have grown and developed those beliefs.
No hesitation this time – I am a constructivist even in the classical sense.
What are you? What are your learning beliefs based on? When was the last time you revisited those foundational ideas?
In the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology article Engagement with Electronic Portfolios: Challenges from the Student Perspective the authors point to student disillusionment with the fact that they all too often are being asked to do something, create an eportfolio, which most instructors have not done. The following response from a student focus group session reveals students frustration in the fact that instructors are talking the talk but now walking the walk when it come to using eportfolios:
In terms of promotion the problem is the people trying to explain it have probably never used it so in a way they have no clue what they are talking about, basically. To put it frankly – after listening to them you would be like, Okay so you as an outsider who never even used it is telling us we should do this because it is the best thing since sliced bread but you have never used it – you can’t find someone who did use it – you don’t have enough information to tell us how to use it – and now you’re telling us use it and we’ll grade you on it – this kind of makes it hard for students to accept or appreciate it.
I have been keeping an eportfolio since the late 90’s. Unfortunately, my earlier work was maintained on sites that I did not control and when I left those organizations I was not able to take my work. Therefore my current site www.harapnuik.org archives only go back to 2009. Lessons learned — take control of your domain and site and ensure that you can take your work with you.
Rather then attempt to explain what goes into an eportfolio I am going to offer the following list of examples. You will note significant diversity in the way the sites are setup, the content that is covered and the levels of sophistication. The common factor is that each of these eportfolios highlights the authors personal, professional and social interests and passion for sharing their ideas and experiences.
Levi Harapnuik – My Life as an Extreme Athlete. Levi’s started his eportfolio in primary school and after graduating from high school started to shape his portfolio to help him gain sponsorship for his Down Hill Mountain Bike racing career. The following post and video point to the advantages keeping an eportfolio http://www.levibikes.com/how-my-blog-has-helped-me/
Levi’s main site: http://www.levibikes.com Undergraduate Students Eportfolios:
Roselynn Verwoord’s Electronic Portfolio highlights and shares the work that she is doing with a diverse community of educators, community-based practitioners and researchers, and policy makers, at both the local and international level. http://blogs.ubc.ca/rverwoord/
Rebecca Lynn Taylor – Graduate student teaching portfolio: Graduate student developing a portfolio for professional development https://rebeccalynntaylor.wordpress.com/
George Couros – The Principal of Change: Stories of learning and leading http://georgecouros.ca/blog/
Related Youtube Video – Blog as Portfolio #leadership20
Erin Klien uses her background in teaching and program development to create ideas to infuse technology enhanced activities that directly correlate to the common core national standards. http://www.kleinspiration.com/
Professors/Instructors and Academic Professional Eportfolios:
Tony Bates personal site for resources in online learning and distance education. Perhaps one of the best Academic Professional sites. http://www.tonybates.ca/
Karen L. Kelsky, Ph.D. spent 15 years as an R1 tenured professor, department head, and university advisor, and will tell you the truth about grad school, the job market, and tenure. http://theprofessorisin.com/
Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues. http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/
Kevin Corbett’s site highlights his professional interests as they relate to the Internet, education & media technologies. http://kevincorbett.com/
Michael Stephens – Tame the Web site focuses on emerging trends, tools and processes driving change in library and information communities. http://tametheweb.com/
Tony Karrer’s eLearning Blog on e-Learning Trends eLearning 2.0 Personal Learning Informal Learning eLearning Design Authoring Tools Rapid e-Learning Tools Blended e-Learning e-Learning Tools Learning Management Systems (LMS) e-Learning ROI and Metrics http://elearningtech.blogspot.ca/
Alec Couros – Open Thinking and Digital Pedagogy is Alec’s personal and professional blogging. Alec is a professor of educational technology and media at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina. http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/
Dr. Helen Barrett – No list would be complete without an acknowlegement of Dr. Barretts work with Electronic Portfolios and Digital Storytelling for lifelong and life wide learning. http://electronicportfolios.org/
Luke Wroblewski – LukeW is an internationally recognized digital product leader who has designed and built software used by more than one billion people worldwide. The simplicty and elegence of Lukes site is impressive. http://www.lukew.com/
Innovative Educator – Lisa Nielsen is currently a director of digital engagement and professional learning and an advocate for changing the future of education. Her blog is a great example of a professional eportfolio. http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.ca/
References:
Tosh, D., Light, T. P., Fleming, K., & Haywood, J. (2005). Engagement with electronic portfolios: Challenges from the student perspective. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology/La revue canadienne de l’apprentissage et de la technologie, 31(3).
With more than 60% of websites still NOT using a CMS the 24.1% of all the websites that do, use WordPress. This gives the WordPress 60.2% of the market share.
One more reason why WordPress should be considered as an excellent platform for a learning eportfolio.
The statement “we learn by doing” could be considered common sense. Perhaps it is stating the obvious and yet too many in the academic community need still need to be convinced of this fact. Freeman et al. revealed in their meta-analysis of 225 studies that compared science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classes that:
average examination scores improved by about 6% in active learning sessions, and that students in classes with traditional lecturing were 1.5 times more likely to fail than were students in classes with active learning.” (p. 8410)
While the 6% increase in test scores may not seem overly significant, it can make the difference between a pass or a fail. Furthermore, the data does reveal that active learning does reduce the chances of failure.
Carl Wieman, a Nobel-winning physicist who now does research on teaching and learning, argues that this extensive quantitative analysis by Freeman et al. on active learning in college and university STEM courses provides evidence:
that it is no longer appropriate to use lecture teaching as the comparison standard, and instead, research should compare different active learning methods, because there is such overwhelming evidence that the lecture is substantially less effective. (8320)
We must be careful to not jump to unrealistic conclusions and suggest that we stop lecturing all together. This isn’t reasonable because there are times when explaining concepts to students or sharing expertise is the most effective thing to do. There will always be a place for lecturing but the data is suggesting that the role should be diminished and greater emphasis should be placed on active learning activities.
For those who have been studying learning approaches these findings are not new. Active learning research has revealed that active learning approaches consistently provide better learner achievement than lecture only approaches. If we really want to be evidence-based then we need to stop comparing active learning approaches to the lecture and start exploring what active learning activities work best in what situations.
Determining what activities work best in what context is central to blended-learning. The reason well design blended learning is working is that most of the blended activities that get added to the learning environment have an active learning perspective. The key is the purposeful design of the learning environment starting with a clear overall course goal and well aligned outcomes, activities and assessments. All factors have to be taken into consideration and we must not loose site of the fact that our learner learn by doing.
