INTRODUCING SELF ORGANIZED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION AS A TOOL FOR LIFELONG LEARNING
Prudencia Gutiérrez Esteban and Mark Thomas Peart University of Extremadura (UEx), Spain.
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[email protected] Abstract The profound changes that our society faces require continuous and thoughtful adaptations of the education system to the emerging demands of learning. Higher education is not immune to this reality. This article raises the need to lead a methodological change, renewing the traditional teaching-learning process. Self-Organized Learning Environments (SOLE) is one of the innovative teaching proposals to encourage learning in the society of Information requiring Lifelong Learning. Below, is a detailed methodological approach integrating the use of ICT with problem-based learning orientated towards the use of Personal Learning Environments (PLE) and SOLE according to the current social and educational demands.
Keywords: Higher Education, Personal Learning Environments, Problem Based Learning, Lifelong Learning.
CHANGING PARADIGMS: NEW WAYS OF LEARNING In the XXI century, we can say that technologies have changed the way we live, our customs and social habits. Converting the stage of humanity in a society of technology and information. For every society to develop, new members must be trained and taught to meet with social demand. While school is the institution that collects the desires and the social demand for building their future taxpayers, in theory it should evolve with society. However, the mere integration of ICT does not imply an evolutionary changes as the teaching methodology of many teachers remains similar to that of the twentieth or even the nineteenth century. According to this new social, economic and cultural scenario, the development and infrastructure improvement led to emergence of a new set of technologies used in distance learning specifically in Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), primarily through the so-called virtual platforms or
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LMS (Learning Management Systems), with the inclusion of particular online methods for training (b-learning, e-learning and m-learning), where classroom teaching was complemented by virtual spaces for training offered by educational institutions (Mikropoulos and Natsis, 2011). However, with years learning trends have been growing when the learning possibilities have increased. Outside school walls students develop new ways of learning and using knowledge; in fact, a new learning culture arises breaking classic boundaries of teaching within formal education. Thus we could affirm exist new ways and kinds of learning merging technological (new devices and tools, hardware and software) and teaching innovation (new learning methods, new ways of using devices and tools for teaching and learning). So we are attending to the birth of new learning approaches as stated Beetham, McGill and Littlejohn (2009) in Adell & Castañeda (2012): ·
“Learning 2.0” (Downes, Anderson, Alexander, Walton),
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Counterevidence about 2.0. Learning (Redecker)
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Conectivisim (Siemens)
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Enquiry communities/learning communities (Wenger, Garrison & Anderson)
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Academic apprenticeship (Holme)
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E-learning & e-pedagogy (Mayes & Fowler, Cronje)
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Invisible learning (Moravec & Cobo)
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TPACK (Judi Harris, Koehler & Mishra)
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Creativity (Richard Gerver)
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Learning by doing (Roger Schank)
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Customized Education (David Albury)
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Rhizomatic Learning (Cormier)
Moreover formal, informal, online and lifelong learning and the lately born: edupunk, edupop, incidental learning, ubiquitous learning… where the key idea is that with the introduction of ICT and mainly Internet in our lives, we could learn at any place and at any time (everywhere&everytime learning: EEL), what made that we moved from Formal Schooling Paradigm to Do It Yourself (DIY) (Gutiérrez and Mikiewicz, 2013).
At the same time, if we look at Spain's national legislation, we can observe that the necessity to renew teaching practise is underline on it. In the Organic Law for the Improvement of the Quality of Education passed in 2013. We can find statements in the General Dispositions that confirm that the profound changes that our society faces requires continuous and thoughtful adaptation of the education system to the emerging demands of learning (chapter III, Gral. Dispositions). We need to create conditions that allow timely methodological change, so that the student is an active
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element in the learning process. Future and current students have changed radically in relation to those of a generation ago. The impact of globalization and new technologies make the way they learn, communicate, focus their attention or even approach a task (Chapter IV, Gral Dispositions), different from that of their predecessors.
In 2006 the European Parliament and Council provides a definition of digital literacy that says, "Digital competence involves the confidents and critical use of Information Society Technology (IST) for work, leisure and communication. It is underpinned by basic skills in ICT: the use of computers to retrieve, assess, store, produce, present and exchange information, and to communicate and participate in collaborative networks via the Internet”. Furthermore, as argued by the Common Frame of Digital Competence (2013) digital competence can also be described as the creative, critical and safe use of information and communication technologies to achieve the goals related to work, employability, learning, time, inclusion and participation in society.
Taking into account, these frameworks in which all teaching practices must comply to, we find the sufficient justification to seek a new teaching proposal incorporating ICT as informational and productive elements of the teaching-learning process. In which the student is the master of his or her knowledge and architect to their learning. With the philosophy of Mitra (2010) and SelfOrganized Learning Environments that are revolutionizing primary education, we have decided to take it one step further into Higher Education, entwine ICT policies and Piagetian Psychology Theory in order to favour Lifelong Learning.
1. LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS 1.1 Personal Learning Environments to Self-Organized Learning Environments In recent years, the wealth of literature on personal learning environments has not left indifferent to those who work in initial teacher training, as they have emerged as the most influential training environment and facilitating the acquisition of new learning. This is mainly due to a confluence of factors such as the emergence of Web 2.0, the "democratization" of the Internet. The profusion in the use of social networks and interest, interaction with others, media, activities and tools, involvement in the learning objectives, the interaction between people that enables the creation and exchange of information and knowledge as well as the generation and transformation of that information into knowledge.
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The PLEs (Personal Learning Environments) is a new approach to learning that facilitate the acquisition of digital competence and recognizing the existence of a personal Lifelong Learning environment (Atwell, 2007; Adell and Castañeda, 2010), “built and shared by other people who are part of our personal, professional and social environment of open, interoperable, low learner control (not the teacher or the institution" (Area and Adell, 2009, p. 419)). For Rodrigues and Lobato (2013) it is a personal learning space mediated by technological artefacts externalizing and related knowledge with other peers, connected to the same Web 2.0 space, run by personal rules that form and where multifaceted provides information intended to be shared, improved and established as a common good. Although the implementation of educational processes from and for a PLE is not produced by, the action of the tools used and activities carried out but of the teaching strategies used to achieve new learning (Urbina et. Al., 2013).
So to enable a collaborative networked learning and strengthen PLEs through the Personal Learning Networks (PLN) and the development of digital competence, the proposed work must necessarily pass PLEs transform virtual communities of learning practice (Rebollo et. al., 2012), establishing new training routes that will bring together the formal learning to informal (Palmero and Sánchez, 2013).
On that note, in continuum let us introduce Self-Organised Learning Environments (SOLE). SOLE refers to the adaptation of a school space to facilitate Problem-Based Learning. A teacher encourages their class to work as a community to answer questions using computers with internet access. SOLE’s are created when educators encourage children to work in groups in order to answer motivational and curious questions. To do this there are certain parameters that should be met in order to create a SOLE in accordance with Mitra et. al. (2010): ●
Students should choose their own groups.
● Students can look to see what other groups are doing and take that information back to their own groups. ●
They can move around freely.
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They can change groups at any time.
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They can talk with each other and discuss with other groups.
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Participants have the opportunity to tell their friends what they learned after the
SOLE.
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In order to successfully undertake a SOLE activity, educators or monitors will: ●
Get better at asking questions.
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Become more in tune with what children are most interested in.
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Feel connected on a more equal level.
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Expand their own understanding of what children can learn on their own.
In a school, or in this case higher education groups, such as seminars or workshops. They must: ●
Encourage them to learn independent thinking and learning skills earlier
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Create a culture of curiosity and self-driven learning
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Experience more invigorated and interesting classroom activities.
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Offer more opportunities for both independent and collaborative thinking
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As well as, have fun.
With this mind-set, we hope to achieve a learning environment in which learners can pursue curiosities and learn either individually or collaboratively. Implementing a SOLE in the teachinglearning process should create a positive ambience in which learners are given the tools and the opportunity for Lifelong Learning. Negroponte & Mitra (2012) point out that: “much of the world is discoverable, which is how we all learned from the time we were born until around age 5, when our formal education began. We interacted with our environments to acquire language and common sense. We acquired so much knowledge during those years that we learned many things about manipulating the world and even some about manipulating our parents. Suddenly, at age 5, our learning was assumed to be different and was delivered to us, almost solely through being told by people and soon after by books”.
2. METHODOLOGICAL PROPOSAL As we have highlighted in previous paragraphs education today is in dire need of renovation and modernization. Education needs to be able to contend with the eventuality that if a child wants to know something they can simply take out their mobile phone and find it out within minutes or seconds. However, they need to learn more than mere concepts. Students need to learn how to learn and how to solve problems (procedures and attitudes) but they do not have to learn them sat in a classroom listening to the teacher, or looking at the chalkboard. We maintain that SOLE
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primarily rely on teamwork, where learning is an emergent phenomenon in the self-organization of the system.
One of the subjects in the Primary Education School Teachers Bachelor Degree from the University of Extremadura is IT Resources for Teaching and Research (from here on referred to as, the subject) which specialises in providing students digital skills as university students as well as its application to Education. With the SOLE implementation in the subject of the degree, the primary aim, as is collected in the study plan, is to help students "maintain an attitude of innovation and creativity in the exercise of their profession". Also, knowing and applying innovative experiences in primary education. Besides knowing and apply methods and techniques of educational research and be able to design innovative projects identifying evaluation indicators.
Overall acquiring skills of using ICT as a tool and as an essential way to learn. With the implementation of SOLE, it turns out to be something more than a simple element to learn to learn, it becomes an epicentre of learning that connects the student with the world, propelled by the need to answer big questions.
2.1. METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN As we mentioned in previous sections the SOLE is attractive for its logistical and pedagogical principles. Our methodological approach would be a pilot program in Teaching, Research and IT Resources subject. It will be implemented as a methodology of the current agenda.
The teacher should guide the subject content to “big questions” that encourages and invites students to solve. The questions must provoke curiosity and initiate long conversations. Due to the pragmatic nature of the question, each group could answer involving any disciplinary field for reference. After they have worked in groups, there will be a period of conclusions where each group should present their evidence to the others. So the groups in their computation, have built between them several content perspectives engaging with all of them and thus building their knowledge and using efficiently a set of resources, techniques and strategies of learning to ensure an autonomous, responsible and continuous learning throughout life.
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The aims of this teaching experience are to: ● Design an intervention project in the classroom to introduce elements of the PBL methodology. ● Visualize other types of training (SOLE) that departs from the prevailing models today. ● Know the different methods and modalities that can be found when implementing a SOLE. ● Deepen the importance of PBL and SOLE in Higher Education.
The development of this methodological approach is carried out in three phases, which are: 1) Preparation Stage We must find a suitable space to conduct a SOLE session. It should be an open space that gives the possibility for free movement as well as have sufficient Internet connection for ten computers for groups of three. We must also prepare the question to ask the learners, and try to predict where it will take them. 2) Stage Intervention The stage includes the development of intervention of the SOLE Session. SOLE sessions, as states Mitra (2010) last approximately sixty minutes. Meanwhile, it is subdivided into three phases: a) Introduce the Question At this stage teacher has to explain the process of SOLE and distribute the roles of management and control (as in a SOLE session, student self-organize and regulate). Small groups selforganize in which they should appoint Manager to control and lead the group. Once the groups are ready, the teacher submits the big problem in order to arouse the curiosity of the students and ignite their desire to discover. This phase should not last more than five minutes (With groups and roles established, the process of teaching and learning begins with the question, an example of a IT Resources for Teaching and Research subject question could be: How would life be without technology?). b) Research In this phase, the students have to start the academic adventure. In small groups, they begin the research phase. Students must locate, analyse and gather the information they consider necessary to resolve the problem. They have approximately 30 minutes. In the above example, students now seek the influences of technology in modern life, its functions, etc. In order to respond adequately to the question they would have to come up with their justified conclusions about what life would be without technology. This question can be pursued by various discipline branches (When we
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have more groups or the more flexible the question, we more likely to have a variety of responses). c) Review This should take place in a big group area, in which each group presents their findings summarizing what they have learned and their own conclusions. This phase could generate a debate on the subject or the information collected. At the end of the session, the students should reflect on what they have done in the SOLE and what to improve (both learning and behaviour). This phase should last about fifteen minutes. 3) Evaluation Stage The last stage of any learning design is the evaluation. This is where we must evaluate whether the SOLE are effective in Higher Education. This will make various evaluation tests: 1) Diagnostic assessment. 2) Co-evaluation and self-assessment activities with rubrics. 3) And finally, a SWOT analysis in which we can collect opinions and assess the teachinglearning process from a students’ perspective.
FINAL REMARKS As it has been stated all these new learning scenarios help to configure and describe (at the same time) how the New Millennium Learners learn, think, use and apply to their lives and ways to interchange virtual and real life. Underpinning the issue of relation between formal education and learning, informal education and learning and online education and Lifelong Learning, as the concepts that are being presented by young people. In order to achieve the millennium objectives for education, we need to take action. By using SOLE and these web 2.0. integrated activities, students are developing their research skills and their problem solving abilities. They are also indirectly learning to collect data and use IT tools to express it in many different ways, as well as digitally alphabetizing themselves, working in groups and most importantly, being the centre and main actors of their learning process. With this, we hope to contribute to Lifelong Learning in digital environments. As well as training future teachers on how they can renew education practices using ICT as an ally in the teachinglearning process.
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