Enactment

= = =** __Learning Theories __ **= = = Mayes and de Freitas (2007) noted the importance of having carefully intended learning outcomes when developing online learning tasks. They argue that we need to choose learning and teaching activities that stand a good chance of allowing the students to achieve learning. Thus the authors advocate for careful examination of the assumptions we are making when designing online activities, especially the learning theory informing the learning task(s). = =

= = The aim of this activity or the intended learning outcome is to equip students with telephone interview skills such as planning, conducting and transcribing skills. The students have to acquire the required skills, in other words they have to adapt certain behaviours in order to be good telephone interviewers. One of the theories informing this online design is the associative or the behaviourist learning theory. According to Mayes and de Freitas (2007) learning occurs through the process of connecting the elementary mental or behavioural units, through sequence of activity followed by feedback. = =

= = This learning activity seeks to enable learners to connect behaviours from planning, conducting and transcribing telephone interviews leading to valid data collecting procedures. The emphasis of the behaviourist theory on the behaviour of the learner contributes to concepts such as behavioural objectives and the importance of practice in instruction (Driscoll, 2007). Thus after a model telephone interview or a demonstration, learners will practically carry out an interview from which formative feedback will be provided by both peers and the educator. The behaviourist theory is centrally concerned with learning-by-doing with immediate feedback on success, the careful analysis of learning outcomes, and above all with the alignment of learning objectives, instructional strategies and methods used to assess learning outcomes (Mayes and de Freitas 2007). = = The Masters students in the Advanced Research Design course are supposed to apply the knowledge they acquire in this course to carry out a research that will lead to a minor dissertation. Though the telephone task might be pre-dominantly behaviourist, I argue that there is an element of socio-psychological view of situated perspective. According to Mayes and de Freitas(2007:18) the socio-psychological view of situativity emphasizes the importance of context-dependant learning in informal settings and leads to design of constructivists tasks in which every effort is made to make the learning activity authentic to the social context in which the skills or knowledge are normally embedded. = = Though the task is a role play, it can also be described as problem based as the students have to place themselves in the place of interviewee and interviewer as is the case in real telephone interview situations. As supported by Mayes and de Freitas (2007), the main design emphasis is on the relationship between the nature of the learning task in educational or training environments, and its characteristics when situated in real use. = = The formative assessment from peers and the educators will, therefore, be valuable in ensuring that they polish their telephone interview skills. The students will therefore benefit from the community in the activity. This represent the situative perspective and it is served by the various technologies that allow the identification of, and communication with others who will share in, or contribute to in some way, the learning experience (Mayes and de Freitas 2007:21). Again as mentioned earlier in this portfolio telephone interviews in the African context might prove to be the best way to collect data considering the large number of people with access to mobile phones on the continent. = = Thus the need to acquire the required behaviour in telephone interviews is imperative for these students. An informal discussion with a few of them revealed that they would benefit from a good demonstration and practical active participation with critical feedback from fellow peers and the educators. The learning outcome is, therefore some identifiable change in the learner, which in associative learning is the performance of a new skill and in situative learning, the ability of a learner to participate in new situations or play a more expert role (Beetham 2007). = =

= = = = Driscoll. M. P., Psychological Foundations of Instructional Design in Reisser, R. A., Dempsy, J. V.,(eds) Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. New Jersey: Pearson Education. = = Mayes, T. de Freitas, S. (2007) Learning and e-learning: The role of theory in Beetham H., Sharpe R. (eds) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing and Delivering E-learning. New York: Routledge. = = = __Pedagogical and learning strategies__ = Dabbagh and Bannan-Ritland (2005) describes pedagogical or instructional strategies as ‘what instructors and instructional system do to facilitate student learning’ (p240). They describe as supportive strategies, such learning processes as mentoring and coaching with the goal of modelling the desired performance, skill or process and observing and supporting learners during their execution of a learning task. According to Jonassen in Dabbagh and Bannan-Ritland (2005) modelling and explaining provides learners with an example of the desired performance‍ by focusing on the expert’s performance. This online design intervention seeks to model a telephone interview to the students by an expert. Modelling is essentially an associative learning strategy. Beetham (2007) purports that associative learning demands a teacher who is skilled not only in the subject matter but also in guiding learners through structured activities. In traditional learning, modelling and demonstration are quite common. Wilson and Cole in Dabbagh and Bannan- Ritland (2005) noted how traditional modelling and explaining consist of ‘integrating both the demonstration and explanation during instruction’ including false starts, mistakes and dead end, so that students can see how a process is handled. In this intervention students will be provided with an expert planning of the telephone interview, a podcast of the actual interview and the transcribed version of the interview. According to Dabbagh and Bannan- Ritland (2005) in web based or online learning, the online developer can use digital audio and video an expert’s performance while he or she is performing a real-world task. Proponents of situated learning theory points to its strength in integrating knowing with doing, meaning one learns a subject matter by doing what experts in that subject matter do (Lave 1997 in Driscoll 2007). In traditional classes it might not be that difficult to model a telephone interview for students. The educator or expert might have some people model the telephone interview before the class. Mayes and de Freitas (2007) noted the importance of e-learning in adding value to the learning process. I believe that an online model is more authentic for this task and it adds value to the learning process because it provides a permanent structure and a student can play the podcasts or MP3 player (model) anywhere, anytime until he/she masters the required skills and techniques needed to acquire valid information for research. The fact that in a technologically rich environment the student can record his/her interview with a colleague which he/she can listen to and note her own mistakes and also get formative feedback from other students and the educator reveals the effectiveness of an online intervention to teach such skills.
 * __References __**

=
The fact that students are supposed to carry out a telephone interview means they will be role playing. Role playing is an instructional strategy that allows students to assume practitioner and professional roles in order to act out situations that these professionals face in the real world (Dabbagh, 2005). According to Beetham (2007) situative learners need a sympathetic mentor with insight into the context and the ability to support their developing roles. Dr Brown provides this service adequately as a telephone interview expert. The assumption in the task is that as student role play the interview they get to validate their interview guide, whether it is adequate to bring out the necessary information, and to practically use the questions in the mock interview, with the peer and educator’s formative assessment providing the necessary support. Dabbagh (2005) further noted that role playing allows learners to practice their knowledge and skills in a simulated real world situation and immediately observe the results of their actions, prompting reflection and meaningful learning. As learners listen to their own recordings of the telephone interview in comparison to the model, I believe they take note of their mistakes and make necessary amendments enhancing the learning process. Dabbagh (2005) also noted how learners bring their experience into role playing, consequently gaining ownership of the learning process, with the goal of accomplishing a mission or task associated with his or her role in the scenerio. As a learner is involved in the learning task as a researcher he or she completes the mission of collecting valid research data, which are the skills one would require for the minor dissertation reseach. Role playing is effective because in addition to learning the particular skills and knowledge of the 'role,' the students acquire social skills, communication skills and interpersonal skills which are charecteristics of self-directed learning (Dabbagh, 2005). Such skills are also necessary for a telephone researcher ====== . **__References __** Beetham. H., (2007). An approach to learning activity design in Beetham H., Sharpe R. (eds) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing and Delivering E-learning. New York: Routledge. Dabbagh, N. (2005). Pedagogical models for E-learning: A theory-based framework. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning 1(1) 25-44. Dabbagh, N., Bannan-Ritland (2005) Online Learning Concepts, Strategies and Application. New Jersey: Pearson Education Driscoll. M. P., Psychological Foundations of Instructional Design in Reisser, R. A., Dempsy, J. V.,(eds) Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Mayes, T. de Freitas, S. (2007) Learning and e-learning: The role of theory in Beetham H., Sharpe R. (eds) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing and Delivering E-learning. New York: Routledge. = __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Technological Affordances __ = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">As noted by Oliver et al. (2007) the value of designing for learning lies in the fact that teachers can use the resulting learning designs to plan the learning experience that learners need in order to achieve the planned learning outcomes. The online intervention has to cater for the requirements of the educator in terms of what she wants the students to achieve and the needs of the students on this particular topic. Oliver et al. (2007) further argue for designs that provide motivating and stimulating environments to maintain learner interests and provide the support learners need to work beyond their comfort zones as they develop their skills.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">It was important for this online task, to use technological tools that students would have good access to as well as tools that they were already familiar with, but at the same time making the task interesting and captivating whilst providing the necessary support. The principles used as learning perspective to characterise the essential elements of a learning design with the potential to foster high-quality learning which contributed to the choice of technological tools in this intervention are:


 * 1) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Learner engagement: A consideration of learners’ prior knowledge and their desires and building on their expectations. ====
 * 2) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Acknowledgement of the learning context: A consideration of the implementation of the learning design and its position within the broader programme of the study of the learner. ====
 * 3) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Learner challenge: Seeking active participation of learners, encouraging learners to be self-critical and supportive of learners’ ampliative skills. ====
 * 4) ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Provision of practice: Encouraging learners to articulate and demonstrate to themselves and their peers what they are learning (Boud and Prosser 2002) ====

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A number of technological tools used in the online design were dependent on the first principle. Special attention was taken in identifying the tools that the learners have used or been exposed to before, in the PGDE level. **Vula** a customised Sakai, **Learning Management System (LMS)** became the most appropriate tool mainly because students have used it extensively in the PGDE programme. Vula is also appropriate in case the educator wants to add more content pertaining to telephone interviews, as she can easily upload them to the resources tool. The fact that the task is on the LMS of the institution, makes it easy for learners to access it, not only during the block session but even when they need to refer back to the task during their research processes back in their respective home countries. The second principle which calls for acknowledgement of the learning context justifies the use of Vula because the LMS meets the broader programme of the study for the learners as they can have continous acess to the site.. The question and answer tool allows student to ask questions about telephone interviews and receive feedback from both peers and the educator.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">On the LMS the **Vula wiki** was the tool deliberately chosen to transmit the task. I found the wiki easy to use and the fact that it allows me to link to sites both on the project site and even to external web based sites gave me a lot of choices on the tools to use on the task. I could easily upload the artifacts I needed for the task on to the resources tool of the project site and link them from the wiki. Thus although the wiki has affordances such as write-ability and read-ability, the main reason I used the tool is because it affords link-ability.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The first principle of considering learners prior knowledge justified the use of **podcasts** in the online intervention. Podcasts of lectures and presentations uploaded on course sites during the block session have been used extensively for critical refection exercises and for recall purposes in the PGDE programme. Using a podcast as a tool to convey a good telephone interview became an easy choice given the learners background. The affordances derived from the podcast in this online intervention to use Bower (2008) terminology include listen-ability, playback-ability, record-ability, move- ability, synchronous-ability and share-ability. For this task I also liked the idea that I could easily upload the podcast to the resource section of the project site (Telephone Interview) I had created on Vula and then just create a link to it from the Vula wiki where the task is embedded. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The students after listening to the interview have to role play a telephone interview in pairs and it has to be recorded. The third principle of learner challenge, where there is active participation of learners, encouraging them to be self-critical and supportive of ampliative skills, in this intervention is fulfilled by **Audacity.** Students are to draw up questions and roles play as the interviewer or interviewee. Audacity allows them to do this as it provides affordances such as record- ability, speak- ability and resize-ability. Audacity allows learners to listen to their own performance, and be self critical and it also allows them to edit the recordings where necessary. As suggested by the first principle, designers need to take into consideration the learners’ prior knowledge, Audacity is not a novel tool for the learners since they have used it in the course ICTs for Development Contexts to record their daily reflections. The students will then upload their mock telephone interviews on **audio-boo** so that peers and educators can listen and give comments, this fulfils the fourth principle as audio-boo encourage learners to articulate and demonstrate to themselves and their peers what they are learning <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In consideration of the third and fourth principles which call for seeking active participation of learners to be self critical and supportive of learners skills and encouraging learners to be articulate and demonstrate to themselves and their peers what they are learning, I chose **Google docs** as the appropriate tool to use for both the questions and transcribed version of the telephone interviews. Google docs offers affordances such as write-ability, share-ability, comment-ability and link-ability allowing students to support each other in acquiring the necessary telephone skills. Because the students have to share with other students their work and in turn receive formative feedback, the affordances of sharing and commenting become important for this task. The students are thus involved in: studying the model of the telephone interview which involves planning the interview questions, conducting the interview and transcribing it. They are to follow step-by-step the process of the telephone interview in order to acquire the skills. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">According to Dabbagh and Ritland (2005) in the promotion of modelling, affordances such as synchronous, interactivity and achievability are important and this was in my mind as I chose the tools for this online intervention. **__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">References __** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Boud, D., Prosser, M., (2002) Key Principles for High Quality Student Learning in Higher Education: a framework for evaluation. Educational Media International 39(3) 237-45. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bower, M. (2008) Affordances Analysis- matching learning tasks with learning technologies, Education Media Technology, 45 (1) 3-15. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Dabbagh, N., Bannan-Ritland (2005) Online Learning Concepts, Strategies and Application. New Jersey: Pearson Education <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Oliver. R., Harper, B., Willis, S., Agostinho, S., Hedberg, J.(2007) in Beetham H., Sharpe R. (eds) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing and Delivering E-learning. New York: Routledge.