Description
Session Description
Digital technologies are revolutionising when, where and how we learn. Today’s mobile and highly connected learners expect their university experience to reflect the ways in which digital technologies have transformed how they obtain information, acquire knowledge, communicate and learn (Feldman, 2018). In response, learning and teaching approaches are being ‘reconfigured’ and learning environments ‘reimagined’. Rather than learning occurring in ‘discrete locations’ (UCISA, 2016), the contemporary learning landscape is a ‘fusion’ of the physical and digital space (Thody, 2011; Salamon, 2019). A technology-rich, immersive and interactive environment that motivates learners, promotes learning as an activity and repositions learners as producers, collaborators and creators (JISC, 2006; Neary & Winn, 2009; Taylor & Wilding, 2009; Nordquist & Laing, 2015).
UWS Lanarkshire Campus is an award-winning learning environment designed to ‘revolutionise’ students’ higher education experience (Guardian University Awards, 2019). By challenging traditional modes of delivery and dependencies on ‘formal’ enclosed spaces, the learning landscape is an open and dynamic environment where space – both physical and digital – plays an integral role in shaping the development of learning (Neary et al., 2010; Boddington & Boys, 2011). Adopting a holistic approach enables the learning landscape to be viewed as a connected system of innovative spaces, where the boundaries between the ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ are blurred and where the ‘place’ and ‘mode’ of learning are reimagined (Ryan & Tilbury 2013; Gordon, 2014; Neary & Beetham, 2015).
This session will present empirical evidence drawn from the UWS Lanarkshire Campus project and invite participants to consider the spatial implications in contemporary approaches to learning and teaching. Activities will centre on the ‘learning landscape toolkit’, a resource initially created to support staff/student transition to the new Lanarkshire learning landscape. Drawing on the ‘eight learning events model’ (Leclercq & Poumay, 2005; Verpoorten et al, 2007), the ‘hybrid learning model’(Masson et al., 2008) and the ‘3E framework’ (Smyth, 2007), the toolkit is designed to facilitate a deeper understanding of the role the physical and digital space can have in promoting effective learning and teaching. Framed within a process of appreciative inquiry (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2005), participants will be invited to reflect on their own practice and through engaging in a series of activities based on the ‘learning landscape toolkit’ evaluation will be sought on the extent the ‘toolkit’ can support space as an agent of transformative change.
Session content
Introduction: welcome to Education 4.0 how digital technologies are revolutionising when, where and how we learn
Introduction to learning landscape toolkit
Activity: using the toolkit participants will be asked to identify how and where we will learn in the Education 4.0 landscape
Evaluation: can the toolkit help support space as agent of transformative change?
References
Boddington, A. & Boys, J. (2011) Reshaping Learning: a Critical Reader. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Cooperrider, D. & Whitney, D. (2005) Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Feldman, P. (2018) The potential of Education 4.0 is huge – the UK must take the lead, now. [Online] https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/the-potential-of-education-4-is-huge-the-uk-must-take-the-lead-now-12-sep-2018
Gordon, N. (2014) Flexible Pedagogies: technology-enhanced learning. York: HEA.
Guardian University Awards 2019 [Online] https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/10/sustainable-buildings-that-inspire-award-winner-and-runners-up.
JISC (2006) Designing spaces for effective learning: a guide to 21st-century learning space design, Bristol, HEFCE.
Leclercq, D. & Poumay, M. (2005) The 8 Learning Events Model and its principles [Online} http://www.labset.net/media/prod/8LEM.pdf
Masson, Á. MacNeill, C. Murphy & Ross, V. (2008) The Hybrid Learning Model – A Framework for Teaching and Learning Practice, iJET – Volume 3, Special Issue 1, 12-17.
Neary, M. & Winn, J. (2009) ‘The student as producer: reinventing the student experience in higher education’., in Bell, L., Stevenson, H. & Neary, N. (2009) The future of higher education: policy, pedagogy and the student experience. London: Continuum: 192–210.
Neary, M., Harrison, A., Crellin, G., Parekh, N., Saunders, G., Duggan, F., Williams, F. & Austin, S. (2010) Learning Landscapes in Higher Education, University of Lincoln: Centre for Educational Research and Development.
Neary, N. & Beetham, H. (2015) ‘The nature of academic space’ in Lea, J (ed) Enhancing Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Maidenhead: Open University Press: 83-113.
Nordquist, J. & Laing, A. (2015) Designing spaces for the networked learning landscape, Medical Teacher, 37:4, 337-343.
Ryan, A. & Tilbury, D. (2013) Flexible Pedagogies: new pedagogical ideas. York: HEA.
Salmon, G. (2019) From partnership to fusion: future educational landscapes. [Online] https://wonkhe.com/blogs/from-partnership-to-fusion-future-educational-landscapes/
Smyth, K. (2007) TESEP in Practice The 3E Approach [Online] http://www2.napier.ac.uk/transform/TESEP_3E_Approach.pdf
Taylor, P. & Wilding, D. (2009) Rethinking the values of higher education – the student as collaborator and producer? Undergraduate research as a case study, Gloucester: QAA.
Thody, A. (2011) . ‘Learning landscapes as shared vocabulary for learning spaces’ in Boddington A, & Boys J, (eds) Re-shaping learning: A critical reader: Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. pp 121–136.
UCISA (2016) The UK Higher Education Learning Space Toolkit, [Online] https://www.ucisa.ac.uk/learningspace
Verpoorten, D. Poumay, M & Leclercq, D. (2007) ‘The eight learning events model: A pedagogic conceptual tool supporting diversification of learning methods’, Interactive Learning Environments, 15:2, 151-160.