[P11] Report on good practice of innovative applications of learning theories in TEL

Aim: To clarify the accepted learning theories and explain their connection to theorists, disciplines and paradigms.

Reflection: Creating this document was a challenge for me in making sense of the diverse theoretical and conceptual positions and disciplinary backgrounds of learning theorists and to propose the application my own stakeholder analysis to innovations in technology enhanced learning - but it helped to bring all these things together for a real audience and with peer review.

Contribution: I exercised analytical and visual design skills in the construction of the conceptual diagram and contributed the statements about the complex, contested and dynamic nature of learning theory. I also tidied up and commented on the stakeholder analysis for innovation designers. My part: 80% (with members of the HOTEL project team).

Originality, impact and importance: This work includes a new synthesis of key theorists and their ideas, highlighting disciplinary background. It has been widely reported as part of the Hotel EU project and achieved widespread dissemination and impact. It is intended to address an EU identified problem of educational technology innovators who are actively developing without a full understanding of the scope of learning theory and its problems in relation to technology.

Evidence: The report is a deliverable of the EU funded HoTEL project (Millwood, 2013a). Widespread dissemination and impact is evidenced by the commentary on my blog (Millwood 2013c) and a number of adaptations and translations into other languages.

The HoTEL Support Action aims to contribute to more effective, holistic and faster innovation cycles in European Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), focusing on the design, testing and validation of a new innovation working method.

This document sets out the learning theories which influence innovators, identifies the new learning practices supported by TEL in higher education, professional learning and informal learning, and offers a multiple stakeholder analysis for TEL innovations in learning & education.

Educational innovators should benefit from this document as a guide to effective analysis, decision-making and implementation.