Describe the potential of human-centered learning in distributed and open learning contexts
Throughout this course, I wrote blog posts, took notes, read articles, and responded to my pod members’ blog posts in order to meet this learning outcome.
Human-centered learning asserts that learning should be more centered around individual learners rather than the content. It suggests that the learning should be involved in facets of the learning, including discovering and exploring.
From my topic 1 post, I talked about communities of inquiry. Communities of learning encourage collaborative learning between peers while challenging individuals to ideate, assimilate, and challenge other opinions. This type of learning focuses on the individuals more than it focuses on the content. Here, learners become responsible for their own learning and are motivated by their curiosity. Vaughan et al., 2013 talk about a teaching presence that is present in a blended learning environment. They made a case to create a distinction between a teacher presence and a teaching presence. This means that members of a community of inquiry are expected to eventually put on the hat of a teacher when relevant.
Here are some notes I made for my topic 1 post:
Teaching in blended environments
What did I agree on
- fundamental rethinking of the educational experience and
presents a challenge to trad. practices
- Blended learning: Organic integration of thoughtfully selected
and complementary face to face and online approaches.
and discourse over time and space
- Community of Inquiry: Higher education is both a collaborative and an individually constructivist learning experience
- Blended learning extends thinking and discourse over time
My pod member, Madeline also astutely discussed the importance of a constructionist approach to learning. She said:
Hi Sam,
I agreed with a lot of what you said from the Community of Inquiry reading. I agree that higher education entails an individually constructivist learning experience. I support the constructivist approach to learning because it’s an authentic learning experience that is hands-on and the emphasis is placed on student agency, self-reflection, student responsibility for learning, and intrinsic motivation. Additionally, constructivism supports using higher-order metacognitive skills like analyzing, evaluating, and creating (Bloom’s Taxonomy). Inquiry/investigation into our own interests supports critical thinking to explore and analyze relationships, evaluate information to make judgments, and use the information to create something new.
Topic 1 also prompted some conversations about the place of LMSes in human-centered learning. In my blog post, I noted that “LMS’s failed to translate the creativity of both instructors and learners through the software. I view this as a missed opportunity to harness technology to improve learning.” The closed nature of LMSes limits how students learned. It appears most LMSes simply mimic traditional face-to-face learning without considering innovation. As such, LMSes fortify content-centered learning by placing emphasis on deadlines, deliverables, assignments and leaving very limited space for individual expression.
Another pod member, Ayden corroborated this premise in her comment:
Hi Sam,
I found your opinion on learning management systems very interesting. I agree that although LMS failed to capitalize on the opportunity to improve the education experience, it wasn’t premature but just became more commonly known and used once education had become more digitized and distributed and there was more of a need for these systems. I also agree that one of LMS’ flaws is that the creators tried to mimic the original in-person classroom methods using an online setting. Clearly, this didn’t convert well and although these systems are organized and easy to use, they lack the student-centred and creative aspects that are needed to engage students in learning.
By completing these activities, I learned that open and distributed environments are capable of providing agency to learners which stimulates their curiosity. This gives learners more responsibility and input in their learning. I also learned that a community of inquiries like the ones I was part of in this course, help develop learners who are able to process, challenge and share ideas. All these are critical tenets of providing education that is centered on the learner and not merely the content. Additionally, I learned that LMSes may drastically limit the creativity of both students and educators which subsequently facilitates learning that Is content-centered.
The things I learned matter to me because I want to be able to facilitate learning that caters to each individual learner without adversely affecting the learning of the entire group. As an educator, I want learners to feel a sense of gratification with their learning. I want them to be able to truly connect with the material through their curiosity and exploration. I also want to empower learners to facilitate and take ownership of their own learning.
Vaughan, N. D., Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. AU Press.