Earlier this week at the Open EdTech Summit in Barcelona, I spent some time with Professor Paul Kirschner of the Open University of the Netherlands. During one of our creative thinking sessions (see yesterday's post) Paul came up with an idea for the support of online learners which I promptly gave a name to. In this post I am briefly going to outline the concept of Digital scaffolding.As the name indicates, the concept is based on a social constructivist perspective, loosely on the ideas of Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Jerome S Bruner took the idea onwards, by proposing scaffolding as a means of fading support as learners become more expert and independent. These are fairly familiar concepts to most people in education, and simply involves learners being supported to achieve a level of competence or knowledge which goes beyond what they could otherwise achieve on their own. Generally the idea when first expounded, was descriptive of human support. Now, with the advent of digital technologies and intelligent agent software, the concept can be extended.
The problem is this - many learners enter the somewhat 'cold digital wasteland' of online learning with no immediate signposts or recognisable help. Sure, there are FAQ pages and help call numbers, and supposedly a tutor who can provide online support. But how about learners coming into the online environment at exactly the point where they can be challenged and motivated enough to press onwards, but not to the point where they quickly lose impetus and crash out of the programme? How do we use digital media to ensure that learners are challenged just enough within their ZPD and how can we scaffold their learning so they can maintain their progress through their course of studies?
Paul and I believe that intelligent agents and/or expert tutor support can provide this type of digital scaffolding. We will no doubt be working on this idea in the coming year or two to develop it further into a concrete proposition. But that's the germ of the idea. Let us know what you think.
Posts
4 comments:
A worthwhile desire. I've long encouraged academic teaching staff to make the entry bar to the technology as low as possible for users. We want them to build confidence in the environment so that they can spend time learning their subject. Learning can be an emotional enough thing without throwing in the stress of having to engage with technology that may very well be new and unfamiliar, if not downright alien to some. Signposting is part of making that landscape less unknown.
Exactly how you manage scaffolding without human intervention might be difficult. Initial diagnostic testing could point users at rich-media resources. An issue may arise though in the development of socialisation strategies. Not only does a learner have to be comfortable with the technology, they will often need to be comfortable with the fellow members of their cohort (and perhaps wider).
Will look forward to reading more about the developments,
Cheers, Nigel
Reminds me of game designing for difficulty level. Find where they are good, but challenged, and keep that level of difficulty. Breaks are good too.
A lot of the problems mentioned are fixable. I'd say they are polishing to make a truly professional level product.
It was a very good information........
The concept of "Digital Scaffolding" seems quite intriguing. This can become a hot pedagogical issue, though experimental and new. Marking, tagging, signalling things, ideas, contributions, etc. may not sound agreeable to traditional, linear learning/teaching. However, how much does remain of that linearity?
Other possible questions:
1) is scaffolding made with or without massive technology. If so, which one?
2) what is the psychological extent of this technologization? (Please excuse neologism).
I would like to signal interesting European Union reports on future learning spaces athttp://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=1780.
Post a Comment