While this type of data may be useful to the newcomer to the Learning Management System (LMS) marketplace or it may even help an organization start their exploration of LMS options, to the long time LMS user this picture reminds us there really are very few options when it comes to creating online learning environments. Having used most of the major listed products I can confirm we really haven’t made much progress since those early days back in 1996-97 when the researchers at University of British Columbia (UBC) presented their groundbreaking idea for a Content/Course Management System (CMS) or what we now refer to as the LMS. I recall stating back then that the UBC system had great potential to enable us to use technology to enhance the learning…if we could focus on building learning environments, not just content delivery. I used all these LMS and a variety of institutions and have also dabbled in the “Other” or “Homegrown” space and confirm except for a very small handful of active learning innovators most institutions are using their LMS as content delivery systems. The feature lists have grown the interfaces have become more polished but we really are still just using these systems to collect, store, and deliver course content, give students online exams and provide convenient places for students to check their grades.
It also really doesn’t matter who has the biggest market share or who is growing the most because we have reached a saturation and consolidation point in the LMS industry comparable to the North American Pickup Truck market. All the LMS listed can be compared to pickups. Whether you prefer the Dodge Ram, the Ford F150, the Chevy Silverado, the Nissan Titan, or Toyota Tundra all these trucks will work great if you want to pick up and deliver stuff. Most choices are a matter of preference and personal experience with previous models. Similarly, all these LMS will work great to collect, store and deliver content…it is just a matter of familiarizing oneself with where the typical controls are located and then getting comfortable with the way the tool handles. If you want to do much more then just deliver the content you have look beyond the delivery vehicle to consider how you Create Significant Learning Environments and how you give your learners Choice Ownership and Voice through Authentic learning opportunities.
I have always been a reader. In grade school I read hundreds of books on every imaginable subject. I grew up in a rural setting and as a young boy I the read through the World Book Encyclopedia and then used the school library and any other repositories of book as resources to solve many practical day to day problems I faced living on a farm in Northern Alberta. These books became a lifeline to a much bigger and brighter world that I was also inspired to explore. I didn’t know it then, but these books also started me down the path of authentic learning which I define as making meaningful connections with new ideas and using that new knowledge to shape and change my attitudes, skills, and behaviors.
So, anything that would help me to learn was extremely valuable. This was many decades before the birth of the Internet so books magazines, films, records, recordings, stories and insights from experienced people and almost anything that contained or was able to share information contributed to my learning. Unfortunately, this cognitivist focused learning I found so natural was not a priority in any of the behaviourist focused schools that I attended as a child and teen in the 1960s and 1970s. I am not alone in viewing learning as an amazing and natural part of the human experience and have always been frustrated with the fact that learning happens so naturally everywhere but in schools (Thomas & Brown, 2011). Fortunately, I didn’t listen to all those teachers and administrators who said I wasn’t “suited” for school. I had always known that there was much more to learning than just being able to repeat meaningless facts and figures on quizzes and tests.
While I wasn’t “suited” for school, I was suited for learning, and as a result, I focused on learning how to learn more effectively (Harapnuik, 2011). Furthermore, my use of technology to create things, to solve problems, and to enhance my learning was something that I also was prevented from using in school. Therefore, most of my experiences in a wide assortment of educational systems and at all levels confirmed that for the most part the 20th century model of information delivery followed by confirmation via some form of summative assessment was really the priority of school.
As an adult in higher education, I also had to deal with the troubling reality that my passion for learning, which I now refer to as the making of meaningful connections, or connecting the dots, was not as important to my teachers as the processes of schooling, which I also refer to as collecting and regurgitating the dots (Harapnuik, 2015a).
While collecting and regurgitating the dots, or the information delivery model of instruction, is well suited to the industrial age, it is not so well suited for the information age. Unfortunately, throughout my entire childhood educational career and up to the present time, I have been forced to deal with teachers, educators, and many colleagues who still operate in the industrial age of information delivery. Because these people are so trapped by the existing systems of schooling and the behaviourist methods that still dominate our assessment strategies, they mistakenly believe that they can simply take technology and strap it onto existing modes of delivery. As we have learned from Papert (1993), this is no more effective than strapping a jet engine onto a horse cart.
This response by traditional educators is unfortunate because technology has profoundly changed the world in which we live. That change has the potential to improve education in the way in which our students use digital resources to acquire and apply knowledge and more importantly, create new knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. Despite the availability of these digital tools and resources, most educators continue to struggle to effectively implement them. There are small number of teachers who are early adopters of technology who are making a difference and who are using technology to enhance the learning environment. They are willing to give the learner choice, ownership and voice through authentic learning opportunities. These people are using technology to help create the significant learning environments that promotes growth and enable learners to address what is one of the most important fundamental questions we need to continually ask – what are you learning today? This question leads to the next most important question – What do you want to learn next? And this is the topic for future posts….
References
Harapnuik, D. (2011, September 4). Not suited for school but suited for learning
[Youtube]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/clv2yr_UhDU
Harapnuik, D. (2015, August 15). Connecting the dots vs collecting the dots. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/85XpexQy68g
Papert, S. (1993). The children’s machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. New York, NY: Basic books.
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the
imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace.
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
–George Bernard Shaw
Course Outcome
Learners will synthesize their knowledge, skills, beliefs, and values gained through their digital learning and leadership experiences and present a comprehensive plan on how they developed into digital learners and leaders that can identify and promote innovation, create significant digital learning environments, and lead organizational change.
Module Objectives
Learners will:
analyze and synthesize all key aspects and components of the DLL program and ePortfolio process that contributed to their development as a digital learner and leader and share this experience along with the comprehensive organization of their innovation project.
will locate, evaluate and compile web-based resources, experts and communities that will help them in their continued growth and development as digital learners and leaders.
The Master of Digital Learning and Leading (DLL) is a collaborative learner-centered program that embraces technological innovation through collaboration, active and authentic learning, and the creation of significant learning environments. The fundamental principles of the DLL include:
Why: We believe that the Digital Learning and Leading program at Lamar University must prepare our learners be digital leaders who can to lead organizational change using technology innovations and shape the future of digital learning.
How:
To do this, the Digital Learning and Leading program at Lamar University provides an innovative, collaborative learning environment which equips our learners with the necessary tools to effectively bring about change in their organizations.
What:
The Digital Learning and Leading program at Lamar University prepares leaders who can create significant learning environments, lead organizational change, and drive innovation in a digitally-advanced century.
DLL Course Goals
EDLD 5302
Learners will take ownership and agency over the learning process and incorporate learner choice and voice in designing authentic projects that use technology innovations as a catalyst for change in their organizational setting.
EDLD 5303
The learner will prepare and submit an eportfolio that demonstrates their mastery of the learning outcomes for previously completed professional development work (Apple Distinguished Education, Microsoft Certified Educator, Google Certified Educator, EDLD 5302, etc.).
EDLD 5304
Learners will be equipped with tools to be a self-differentiated leader who can address the inevitable resistance to change that will occur when launching innovative digital learning initiatives.
EDLD 5305
Learners will identify technology innovations and embrace them as opportunities rather than challenges and proactively use those changes as catalysts to enhance their institution or district’s learning environments.
EDLD 5313
Learners will identify and incorporate constructivist theories to create and implement significant digital learning environments.
EDLD 5314
Students will analyze and assess global educational technology innovation projects to determine what worked and what could be done better and apply those lessons learned to local innovation projects.
EDLD 5315
Learners will be able to assess the instructional impact the implementation of their innovation plans have on creating effective digital learning environments.
EDLD 5316
Learners who work in the area of educational policy and practice will be able to navigate the emerging educational and legal challenges of a knowledge society where most K-12 students are deeply immersed in online communication, having grown up as “digital natives.”
EDLD 5317
Learners will examine a variety of digital environments and other digital resources to effectively communicate with others the practical implementation and the pedagogical value for educational use.
EDLD 5318
Students will apply constructivist learning theories and instructional design principles in the development and delivery of an online course utilizing significant learning environments through selected course management tools.
EDLD 5388
Learners will effectively apply an innovative teaching practice by collaborating with colleagues to evaluate their impact on learners and design and model authentic professional learning (PL) activities that are active, have a significant duration, and are specific to their discipline.
EDLD 5320
Learners will synthesize their knowledge, skills, beliefs, and values gained through their digital learning and leadership experiences and present a comprehensive plan on how they developed into digital learners and leaders that can identify and promote innovation, create significant digital learning environments, and lead organizational change.
DLL Journey Discussion – How Far You Have Come
In this assignment reflect on the DLL principles and the courses goals in the DLL program (listed in the Reading section) that have helped you become a digital learner and leader and consider what you have accomplished in the DLL program so far:
Self-directed Learning
Innovation plan
Organizational change strategy
Learning Theory Foundation
Significant Learning Environment
Instructional Design/Backward Design
Measurement strategy
Online/Blended course
Paper/Presentation
ePortfolio
Personal Learning Network
M. Ed. Digital Learning & Leading
This assignment will be assessed as part of your course participation grade.
DLL Journey Discussion – What’s Next?
In the second part of the discussion assignment we want you to contemplate the next stage of your DLL journey and review the video What it takes to be a great leader.
Consider Roselinde Torres 3 key questions as well as the 3 key questions we have repeatedly asked you consider in various courses in the program as you consider your next steps:
What worked?
What could you do better?
What lessons have you learned?
Where are you looking to anticipate change?
What is the diversity measure of your network?
Are you courageous enough to abandon the past?
This assignment will be assessed as part of your course participation grade.
Digital Learning & Leading Journey Synthesis Assignment
Assignment Value: 150 points
In this final part of your DLL capstone we are asking you to analyze and synthesize all key aspects and components of the DLL program and ePortfolio process that contributed to your development as a digital learner and leader. You must share this experience along with the comprehensive organization of all your work.
Instructions
Create a visual representation of your DLL journey. You can create a video, digital story, Prezi, infographic(s) other digital tools to show your audience:
Where you started
Who was involved
The highs and lows of your learning process
How you felt throughout the process
What you have created
What you have accomplished – (course goals)
What worked
What you could do better
What lessons you have learned
Where you are now
What you plan to do next
This list is just a starting point for your synthesis—you need to make this your own. You will need to link to all your existing work and resources to support your visual representation and will also need to create a well organized blog post to further synthesize and support your experience in the DLL program.
At the end of each of the courses with the DLL program, we have asked you to organize and present the module assignments into a cohesive section of your ePortfolio. You will need to do the same PLUS you will also need to organize all your course work into a cohesive section of your ePortfolio. Consider, at MINIMUM, the following sections or components:
About/Bio (Great place for your learning philosophy)
Main Interest
COVA & CSLE
Projects (Innovation plan)
Categories
Archives
Links
Social Media connections
Contact
Navigational structure
Reading List/Books etc.
Search
Ensure that you create an organizational and navigational structure that connects all the components and clearly demonstrates that all the pieces fit into a bigger strategy or approach.
Please remember – This assignment is unique to you, your circumstances, and your organization so you need to keep in mind who your audience is, why and how they will use this information, and what impact you are looking to make.
Leveraging choice, ownership, voice through authentic learning
Course Outcome/Goal
Learners will synthesize their knowledge, skills, beliefs, and values gained through their digital learning and leadership experiences and present a comprehensive plan on how they developed into digital learners and leaders that can identify and promote innovation, create significant digital learning environments, and lead organizational change.
Module Outcomes/Goals
Learners will:
explore and analyze how the COVA approach has aided them in their learning process and
apply the principles of the COVA approach to creating significant learning environments that provide their learners with choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning opportunities.
Module 1 & 2 Introduction Video
Readings
The following resources are available to help you in your final synthesis.
Harapnuik, D. K., Thibodeaux, T. N., & Cummings, C. D. (2018). Choice, Ownership, and Voice through Authentic Learning Opportunities. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=7291
Peer Reviewed Book Chapters
Cummings, C D., Thibodeaux, T. N., & Harapnuik, D. K. (2017). Using the COVA learning approach to create active and significant learning environments. In Keengwe, J. S. (Eds.). Handbook of research on digital content, mobile learning, and technology integration models in teacher education. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Submitted for Publication. – Using the COVA Approach to Promote Active Learning-Chapter Draft.pdf
Thibodeaux, T. N., Harapnuik, D. K., Cummings, C. D., & Wooten, R. (2017). Learning all the time and everywhere: Moving beyond the hype of the mobile learning quick fix. In Keengwe, J. S. (Eds.). Handbook of research on mobile technology, constructivism, and meaningful learning. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Submitted for Publication. – Learning All the Time and Everywhere-InPressDraft.pdf
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
Thibodeaux, T. N., Harapnuik, D. K, & Cummings, C. D. (2017). Factors that contribute to ePortfolio persistence. International Journal of ePortfolio, 7(1), p. 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.theijep.com/pdf/IJEP257.pdf
Thibodeaux, T. N., Harapnuik, D. K, & Cummings, C. D. (2017). Graduate student perceptions of the impact of the COVA learning approach on authentic projects and ePortfolios. Manuscript submitted for publication. – Impact of the COVA Learning Approach_InPressDraft.pdf
COVA Reflections: Collaborative Discussions
Throughout the Digital Learning and Leading (DLL) program we have given you choice, ownership, and voice through authentic assignments which we formally refer to as the COVA approach. We have also created a significant learning environment (CSLE) within the DLL program and have modelled the use of the COVA approach and CSLE. Use the following two videos to help you recall the CLSE and the importance of Connecting the Dots:
What to Expect from the DLL
Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE)
In this part of your capstone reflection and discussion we want you to consider how the COVA approach and CSLE has aided you in your learning process and a summarize how you will apply the COVA approach to creating significant learning environments that provide your learners with choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning opportunities. Consider the following questions as starting points for your reflection and for your plans on using the COVA and CSLE in your organization:
Where or when did you first realize that you genuinely had choice, ownership and voice through authentic assignments?
What was your initial reaction when given the freedom and responsibility to choose to take ownership of your learning through an authentic project? Were you ready for this? If not or if so…what did you do?
What did you do to adjust to this style of learning? Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
How difficult was it to take control of your own voice and focus on your organization as the audience for your work?
Some students had mixed feelings toward promoting change in their organizations—how has your attitude toward leading change grown throughout the program?
How authentic is your innovation plan; did you just create it to get through the course work or did you really hope to change your organization.
How does the COVA approach and Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE) align or not align with your learning philosophy?
How has your perspective on learning and your learning philosophy changed? If there hasn’t been any changes explain why.
Knowing what you know now about the COVA approach how will you plan to use the COVA approach to create significant learning environments in your organization?
OR will you not use the COVA approach and why?
How will you give your learners choice ownership and and voice through authentic assignments?
How will you prepare your learners and colleagues for the COVA approach and CSLE?
What are some challenges that you will face in using the COVA approach and CSLE?
This assignment will be assessed as part of your course participation grade.
Throughout the Digital Learning and Leading (DLL) program we have given you choice, ownership, and voice through authentic assignments. How has this process helped you and how can it help others?
Instructions
Part A
In this part of your capstone reflection we want you to consider how the COVA approach and the significant learning environment we have created in the DLL has aided you in your learning process. Consider the following questions that you used in the discussion as starting points for your reflection:
Where or when did you first realize that you genuinely had choice, ownership and voice through authentic assignments?
What was your initial reaction when given the freedom and responsibility to choose to take ownership of your learning through an authentic project? Were you ready for this? If not or if so…what did you do?
What did you do to adjust to this style of learning? Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
How difficult was it to take control of your own voice and focus on your organization as the audience for your work?
Some students had mixed feelings toward promoting change in their organizations—how has your attitude toward leading change grown throughout the program?
How authentic is your innovation plan; did you just create it to get through the course work or did you really hope to change your organization.
How does the COVA approach and Creating Significant Learning Environments (CSLE) align or not align with your learning philosophy?
How has your perspective on learning and your learning philosophy changed? If there hasn’t been any changes explain why.
Part B
Summarize how you will apply the COVA approach to creating significant learning environments that provide your learners with choice, ownership, voice, and authentic learning opportunities. Consider the following questions and you used in the discussion as starting points for your plans on using the COVA and CSLE in your organization:
Knowing what you know now about the COVA approach how will you plan to use the COVA approach to create significant learning environments in your organization?
OR will you not use the COVA approach and why?
How will you give your learners choice ownership and voice through authentic assignments?
How will you prepare your learners and colleagues for the COVA approach and CSLE?
What are some challenges that you will face in using the COVA approach and CSLE?
Combine Parts A & B into one cohesive post. While the format and structure of the COVA reflection and application is up to you we do encourage you keep in mind that you need to create a cohesive post which will include links to your existing posts or resources you have created that will support or provide examples for your reflection. Your post can include audio, video, infographic, or other media to help summarize and reinforce your ideas.
Please remember – This assignment is unique to you, your circumstances, and your organization so you need to keep in mind who your audience is, why and how they will use this information, and what impact you are looking to make.
The Master of Digital Learning and Leading (DLL) at Lamar University is a collaborative learner-centered program that embraces technological innovation through collaboration, active and authentic learning, and the creation of significant learning environments. The fundamental principles of the DLL include:
Why: We believe that we must inspire and prepare our learners to lead organizational change using technology innovations as a catalyst for enhancing learning.
How: To do this, we create significant learning environments (CSLE) which give our learners choice, ownership and voice through authentic (COVA) learning opportunities.
What: We prepare leaders who can lead organizational change and drive innovation in a digitally connected world.
While technology is continually used to enhance the learning environment in the DLL, it isn’t just relegated to being another tool that teachers put in their instructional toolboxes. Innovative technologies are used as catalysts to enhance learning and when effectively employed, the technology disappears into the learning environment.
The DLL program is grounded in the approaches of Dewey, Bruner, Papert, and Piaget who advocate that learning is an active, dynamic, and social process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current and past knowledge and experiences. The making of meaningful connections is key to the learning and knowing.
In the DLL program, we create and model significant learning environments (CSLE) where the learner takes control and ownership of their learning. Through authentic projects, DLL students learn how to purposefully assemble all the key components of effective learning and create their own significant learning environments that will then, in turn, help their learners to learn how to learn.
Research and experience confirm that we learn most deeply through effective collaboration and feedback from our peers. DLL collaborative activities are structured so that students can bring their ideas to their group, examine and test those ideas, and then apply those refined and strengthened ideas to their own projects.
Collaboration is not used as a consensus driving process, rather it is part of the significant learning environment where learners are immersed and engage in productive thinking and problem solving and emerge with enhanced knowledge and skills that they can apply in their own classrooms and professional development.
In DLL the student will not be asked to sit and get professional development but will be required to go and show what they have learned through the creation of their own learning ePortfolio. The DLL ePortfolio reinforces learner choice, ownership, voice through authentic learning (COVA) which the DLL students are then able to share with their learners and their learning communities.
What is the COVA?
C
The freedom to choose (C) their authentic learning opportunity and how to organize, structure and present their learning experiences.
O
Ownership (O) over the entire learning process – including selection of authentic projects and their eportfolio tools.
V
The opportunity to find and use their own voice (V) to revise and restructure their work and ideas.
A
Authentic (A) learning opportunities that enable students to make a difference in their own organizations and learning environments.
As primary developers of the DLL program Dr. Harapnuik, Dr. Cummings, and Dr. Thibodeaux will be continuing research into the DLL and COVA approach that will explore student perceptions on how choice, ownership, voice, and authentic projects impact their ePortfolios, learning, and learning environments. The findings of this study and ongoing research will add to the growing body of research into how the COVA learning approach will contribute to the continued use ePortfolios as a learning tools beyond the program of study, how the COVA approach can be used to impact student learning, and how this experience transfers to students’ learning environments.
Sinek, S. (2009, September 28). Start with why — how great leaders inspire action. [Youtube]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/u4ZoJKF_VuA
