[Portfolio] Learning Design Lens Concept (and T&L Call Reminder)

[Josh Baron]

Folks,

Quick reminder that we will be having our regular weekly Sakai Teaching 
and Learning call today at 12 Noon EST.  Dial-in information is below.

On the call last week we had a good discussion about the use of the 
"learning capability themes" that have been the focus of much of the 
groups work recently.  As the conversation continued I thought a very 
powerful and innovative concept emerged that I think would be useful to 
get out on the lists and get reaction to from a broader group.  So, I'm 
going to try and outline this concept below but others should jump in to 
correct things or suggest other views.

The T&L group has now identified 7 "learning capability themes" (each 
which have several related sub-themes) which represent core "values" 
related to teaching and learning that Sakai (particularly Sakai 3) needs 
to support and facilitate.  These themes (which are still in draft format) 
are: Assessment/Evaluation, Learning Space Design and Management, Social 
Interaction, Content Creation and Use, Autonomy, Learning Activities and, 
last but certainly not least, Openness.  Details on these and their 
definitions are available in the Google Spreadsheet the group has been 
using which is linked from our Confluence page.  A large group of teaching 
and learning experts in our community have done the heavy lifting to 
develop these and should get all of the credit for them.

As we discussed with Clay how these might be used in the Sakai 3 design 
process, a concept of a Learning Design Lens emerged in which these themes 
or "lenses" could be used by designers and developers to understand how 
different capabilities need to be designed to support and facilitate 
teaching and learning.  For example, as an asynchronous discussion 
capability was being created, designers/develops would view it through 
each lens...in looking at it through the "assessment/evaluation lens" they 
would see that it the ability to assign grades, provide feedback, add a 
posting to a portfolio, etc. all needed to be built into the 
capability...then they might switch lens and view it through the 
"Openness" lens and from that perspective see that it needs to allow users 
to publish a discussion out to the public...or they might view it through 
the "Content Creation and Use" lens and see that instructors will want to 
be able to incorporate discussion posts into future course content.

I'm rather interested in this model as it creates a mechanism by which 
"teaching and learning" practitioners can provide input and insight into 
the design and development process.  It would also create opportunities 
for some very powerful dialogs between practitioners, designers and 
developers as these lens were put to use.

I'd love to hear from everyone about this concept but would be 
particularly interested in hearing what designers and developers thought.

Josh 

Calls are currently taking place every Wednesday at 12:00 Noon ET (New 
York, USA).  To participate:

    * Dial 1-888-447-7153 (International callers: 1-719-387-1138)
    * Enter in passcode: 917798 (the hit #)
    * Listen to music until "moderator" starts the call
    * Need help? Call tech support at 1-877-807-0970


-----------------------------
Joshua Baron
Director, Academic Technology and eLearning
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
(845) 575-3623 (work)
Twitter: JoshBaron
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