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The challenge of Learning Theory
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For the designer, understanding the learner through learning theories can lead to a rich, diverse and contested quagmire, where the differences between concept, theory and paradigm are not well explained nor observed. This section sets out that complexity in order to explain the motivation to construct a simple constructivist model.
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Theoretical & Conceptual Framework
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Technology
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Technology as an augmentation of human performance has been central to my design practice - for creativity, communication and content. I have been a strong advocate of Owers' ideas (2001) regarding the evolutionary symbiosis of technology and humankind, which provides a context for justifying educational design with technology.
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Theoretical & Conceptual Framework
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Education
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The concept of education is here concerned with the aims, objectives & values, the organisations, processes & culture of the instruments & institutions that society has formulated to address the its needs to educate lifelong learners.
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Theoretical & Conceptual Framework
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Claim
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I have been designing, developing and researching educational materials, contexts and practices based on computer technologies since 1978, and as a practitioner in this field, sought to design each more effectively to improve education. In that time I have researched widely across multiple disciplines with a learner-centred focus.
My claim for PhD by Practice begins by explaining the story of my developing knowledge, continues with the selection from my portfolio and then sets out my thesis in the form of three analyses to support the design of learner-centred technology-enhanced education.
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Introduction - from tacit to explicit knowledge
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This section outlines the story of my developing knowledge and links it to my thesis. It explains the origins of the thesis in the development of tacit knowledge in practice and its transformation to explicit knowledge.
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Claim
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Eighties
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I took up my first professional research post in 1980 to design and develop educational software. This period saw a progression in my practice from a focus on technology to a concern for design & pedagogy and my first attempt to engage with doctoral study.
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Claim
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Nineties
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In 1990 I stepped back from an academic research focus and returned to creative practice, developing interactive multimedia materials to distribute on CD-ROM, albeit as a senior lecturer in the education faculty of Anglia Higher Education College. The decade saw the rise of Ultralab, of which I was an informal deputy head, growing from half a dozen to over fifty staff. My practice saw a move from software development to medium-scale action research in pilot projects relating to online communities. I also helped develop an online Masters degree and begin supervising doctoral students.
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Claim
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Noughties
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In 2000, Ultralab undertook the Talking Heads project with over one thousand head teachers joining an online community of practice, thus marking a move towards large-scale action research. Later in this decade I took on the leadership of Ultralab, participating and overseeing the development of Ultraversity - an innovative online work-focussed degree programme - and later moved to the University of Bolton to help create a university framework based on Ultraversity's success.
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Claim
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[A1] Expressive Constructivism
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This model was developed to explain how learning works dynamically in terms of the cognitive activities of expression (what you do to communicate an idea) and evaluation (deciding if the idea is 'right').
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Claim
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[A2] How Can Technology Enhance Learning?
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Published as a poster in June 2012, this analysis was the culmination of years of developing understanding. It proposes features of the use of computers mapped on to the expressive constructivism model of learning, thus detailing ways in which technology can enhance learning.
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Claim
