Hi Mark, thats very kind of you, thanks. Draft paper attached. Our paths have some similarities but have never actually crossed. Like you I worked for IET at the OU, but left in 1984 and Ive split my career between acdemia and industry. Im curently back in academia. Ive gradually become interested in the heritage industry and discovered that attitudes to learning are very different from formal education and training. As you will see from the paper, Im not convinced that the two are so very different that its not possible to transfer what we have learned from one context to the other.
Regards Stephen
________________________________
From: Museums Computer Group on behalf of Mark Elsom-Cook
Sent: Sun 07/01/2007 10:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Learning design
Hi stephen,
Happy to comment. Don't know if you have come across my work before,
but I've been an academic specializing in computers and education for
about 25 years (my surname is unique, so any web or Amazon search on
'Elsom-Cook' just finds my stuff). I only got involved in the museums
sector about 18 months ago, but one of the areas I am particularly
interested in is the relationship between Museum Education and new
technologies. Raises different issues from school/university learning
Regards
Mark
Stephen C Brown wrote:
>Dear Mark, thanks you for your very helpful thoughts on learning
>objectives. I'm working on a paper for Museums and the Web 07 that
>tries to deal with these issues. I would be happy to take critical
>comments on the draft if you have time to read it.
>Regards Stephen
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
>Mark Elsom-Cook
>Sent: 04 December 2006 08:40
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Learning design
>
>
>Evaluating whether your software/website etc. achieves certain learning
>objectives is a thorny issue that has been knocking around the
>Computer-Based Learning / Instructional Design communities for at least
>30 years. There are loads of PhDs about the issues involved.
>
> What it mostly comes down to is:
>
> 1) specifying Learning Objectives (and normally, how the software will
>satisfy those objectives) is a standard part of good design and should
>be applied to any educational software/site
>2) Any piece of software will normally 'contribute to' (rather than
>completely satisfy) those objectives - particularly if you deal with
>large-scale ones like National Curriculum level
>3) It is generally a problem to do any meaningful evaluation to test
>whether the users have achieved certain objectives. This is partly
>because there are so many variables to control, and partly because many
>of the effects of educational software may only be apparent years later
>in different contexts. This is particularly the case if you are coming
>from a Constructivist perspective (which I believe most museum
>activities must be, almost by definition), where the exploratory nature
>increases the variation in what an individual might derive from the
>experience
>
> The overall effect of the above is that true educational evaluation
>of the software is rarely even attempted and people generally simplify
>to one of:
>
>a) specifying objectives so trivial that they are measurable/testable
>even though they may be meaningless (e.g. user spends at least 2 minutes
>
>on page 3, user completes exercise 'A', user answers 3 out of 5
>questions correctly). This also often goes with a drift towards a more
>behaviourist bias in the software design - because it is easier to find
>things to measure
>
>b) use the '8 out of 10 owners said their cats prefer it' approach. This
>
>method means you abandon hope of doing anything meaningful and evaluate
>people's opinions of the site instead. The most common version is to get
>
>a number of teachers, let them use the software, and give them a
>structured questionnaire to answer questions about whether they think
>learners would benefit from using it. This has the advantage that it
>almost always gives positive results (especially if you ask the right
>questions) but tells you nearly nothing. It's the same trick that
>cosmetics manufacturers use. They sell various creams with '93% of women
>
>asked said they felt a difference' type adverts/studies precisely
>because they can find no genuine tests to give a positive result
>
> I'm all for evaluating any aspect of software/sites that we can - and
>
>formative stuff during design is preferred - but the bottom line is that
>
>meaningful educational evaluation is a hard problem and most people
>finesse it.
>
> Mark Elsom-Cook
>
>Learning Technology Services Ltd
>http://www.ltslimited.co.uk
>
>
>Stephen C Brown wrote:
>
>
>
>>Dear colleagues, have you built learning activities into your Museum
>>web site? Was it important for you to be able to demonstrate the
>>effectiveness of your designs? Did you test the designs during
>>development, and/or after they were completed? Are you willing to
>>share some of your experiences? I am writing a paper for Museums and
>>the Web 2007 that explores how we can predict what learning is likely
>>to result from particular web site designs and how important it is to
>>do so. My thesis is that we need to formatively test designs during
>>development to ensure they deliver what they are supposed to, and this
>>applies as much to learning activities as to any other part of the
>>site. We cannot test if we don't know what the design is intended to
>>achieve. So if Im right then specifying learning outcomes is essential
>>
>>
>
>
>
>>when we are designing websites that encourage and support learning.
>>But I could be wrong which is why I'm keen to hear from you.
>>
>>To make it easier for you to reply there is a small questionnaire at
>>http://146.227.82.82:8080/opinio/s?s=102 It's only 10 questions and
>>most of them have multiple choice answers.
>>
>>Many thanks for your help, Stephen
>>
>>Professor Stephen Brown
>>Director, Knowledge Media Design
>>De Montfort University
>>Portland 2.3a
>>The Gateway
>>Leicester LE1 9BH
>>UK
>>
>>Tel +44 (0)116 257 7173
>>Fax +44(0) 116 250 6101
>>mob +44 (0)7989 948230
>>http://kmd.dmu.ac.uk
>>
>>Director, Aria
>>http://aria.dmu.ac.uk
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
--
Mark Elsom-Cook
[log in to unmask]
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