Overview

Figure 4: Conceptual framework for this thesis

The authors that surround the four concepts, shown in Figure 4, are the most significant theorists of those that have provided the author with insight, foundation and explanation for the design challenges experienced. Increasingly responsible rôles as a teacher, software developer, media designer, team leader and director, together with a natural proclivity to be reflective practitioner, broadened and deepened the author's understanding of the criteria for improving design quality in iterative design cycles, informed by these authors' theories.

I recognise the following description of the reflective practitioner in myself:

The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation.

(Schön 1983, 68)

Much of my understanding began as tacit in nature, but the need to lead design, prepare design guidance and collaborate with both technical and pedagogical  colleagues demanded explanation. Extensive opportunities to present at conferences and workshops, improved the explanations and created the need for a simplified and coherent framework, represented by three key analyses, which comprise the thesis set out in the Claim section:

• [A1] Expressive constructivism - a creative and constructivist view of learning itself, founded on the concept of learner;
• [A2] How can technology enhance learning? - some of the key contributions technology can make to learning, founded on concepts of technology and learner;
• [A3] The learner at the centre - a learner-centred, holistic view of the decision points in education, founded on concepts of learner and education.

The issues of design science, mental models, learning theories, teacher types and the symbiosis of technological and human evolution are the major themes discussed in the following sections.