HITS for Education 2011 Guidelines - Sandy McAuley

What works in practice?

More accurately, "What works in a particular ecology of practice?"

Looking for congruence between the tools and expectations of students and the creation of a productive teaching and learning ecologies.

This implies a focus on Who's learning? and what are they learning?

At some point we have to address the question of what we consider "multimedia" to be?

So, what works in practice...

• If it doesn't enhance "convention", don't. In other words, if it doesn't enhance current practices in terms of affect or cognition, and the engagement associated with each, it should be questioned.
• It should broaden and deepen engagement in terms of such things cultural and linguistic differences and differences of prior experiences and knowledge.
• It should enhance opportunities for learners to create, understand, explore, discover, and apply. Learner involvement must be situated appropriately along an axis between open-ended generative tasks and discreteness, simple and complex.
• Practitioners need certain levels of comfort with various technologies, agency or power to choose between them, within the professional responsibility to take up the possibilities. There is a certain amount of risk-taking required here.
• To work, these must be situated within appropriate classroom dynamics, often effectively structure group work.

What works in theory?

All theories are provisional.

Fundamental limits in terms of what the brain can do.

Social constructivism. Connection between theory and practice. Reflexive. 

Culture. "A vague and baggy monster." A part of who we are and how we do things.

Neuroscience, brain plasticity. Theoretical understandings from sociology. Institutional theory. Demographic theory.

Elaboration theory as manifested in Prezi.
“What is the problem for which this solution is the answer?” Neil Postman

Technology

Awareness of the range of tools. Educators are the deciders.

Need for simple software. Software targeted for specific groups or specific problems.

Working with open source.

Need for usability studies. System compatibility. Sharing learning objects.