Chapter 6 mediating artefacts
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This chapter introduces the concept of mediating artefacts, which are representations that mediate the learning design process. Mediating artefacts can take various forms like narratives, visual models, or vocabularies. They are derived from learning activities through abstraction and highlight different aspects of the learning activity. Mediating artefacts can then be aggregated into meta-mediating artefacts like repositories, scaffolds, or mixed formats to further support the design process. Understanding learning activities through mediating artefacts allows practitioners to make informed choices in designing new learning activities.
Chapter 6 mediating artefacts
- 1. Chapter 6 – The role of Mediating Artefacts in learning design Chapter 6 – The role of Me diating Artefacts in learning design................................1 Introduction................................................................................................................1 The origins of the concept of Mediating Artefacts.....................................................1 Capturing and representing practice...........................................................................3 Examples of m e diating artefacts ...............................................................................4 Un derstanding learning activities through Me diating Artefacts ...............................6 Meta-Mediating Artefacts..........................................................................................6 Activity Theory..........................................................................................................8 An illustrative example of the application of this approach.....................................1 1 Teacher A: The design phase Learner A: Use Scenario 1 – beginners’ route Learner B: Use Scenario 2 – advanced route Teacher B: Use Scenario 3 – repurposes Conclusion................................................................................................................16 Introduction This chapter will introduce the concept of Mediating Artefacts, which is one of the key principles underpinning our learning design approach. It will outline the background to the concept and give examples of the ways in which we are using it. It will describe how the origins of the concept are grounded in a socio-cultural perspective and will discuss how we have applied it to the area of learning design. Illustrative examples will be provided of the different Mediating Artefacts practitioners use to guide their design pro- cess. The origins of the concept of Mediating Arte- facts The concept of Mediating Artefacts is very much grounded in a socio-cultural perspect- ive, linking back to the work of Vygostky (Vygotsky, 1962, 1978) and Leontiev and Luria (Leontiev, 1978, 1989; Luria, 1976) and more recently the body of knowledge about Activity Theory (Cole, Engeström, & Vasquez, 1997; Daniels, Cole, & Wertsch, 2007; Engestrom, 2001; Engeström, Punamäki-Gitai, & Miettinen, 1999). 1
- 2. Fundamental to Vygotsky’s ideas is the notion that social interactions play a fundamental role in the process of cognitive development. Vygotsky argued that what distinguishes hu- mans from other animals is their use of speech in relation to practical activity (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 24). He argues that words can shape an activity into structure. He describes the analogy of signs as tools. Signs can be used as a means of solving a given psychological problem (to remember, compare, report, choose, etc.) and he argues this is analogous to the use of tools. Therefore signs act as an instrument of psychological activity in a man- ner analogous to the role of a tool in labour. He refers to this as sub-categories of Mediat- ing Artefacts (Figure 1). He argues that a tool’s function is to serve as a conductor of hu- man influence on the object of activity; i.e. it is externally orientated. Whereas a sign changes nothing in the object of psychological operation, it is internally orientated. Therefore humans use tools that are developed from a culture, such as speech and writ- ing, to mediate their social environment. Vygotsky argues that: Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the so- cial level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsycholo- gical) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to vol- untary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals. (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 57) Figure 1: Signs and tools as Mediating Artefacts Building on this he introduced the concept of the ‘Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)’ which he defined as: We propose that an essential feature of learning is that it creates the zone of prox- imal development; that is, learning awakens a variety of internal development processes that are able to operate only when the child is interacting with people in his environment and in cooperation with his peers. Once these processes are inter- nalised, they become part of the child’s independent developmental achievement. (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 90) 2
- 3. In other words, the Zone of Proximal Development is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with help from others. The concept of scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976) builds on this idea and relates to the idea of the teacher providing scaffolding to the learner’s ZPD, which then is faded over time. Capturing and representing practice Conole (2008) describes how the concept of Mediating Artefacts can be adapted and used in a learning design context. An important aspect of learning design is the process of eli- citing a design describing the essence of a learning activity that can then be reused in the development of a new learning activity. Central to this is the fact that we want to abstract the essential and transferable properties of learning activities, i.e. we want to abstract and describe those properties that are effective but can also be applied to other contexts, those properties that are not context bound to a particular instance of activity. Learning activities can be ‘codified’ into a number of different representations; each one foregrounds different aspects of the learning activity and provides a means of illustrating the inherent design underpinning the learning activity. These forms of representation are defined here as Mediating Artefacts because this emphasises their mediating role in terms of how they are used to mediate design activities. Course designers use a range of Medi- ating Artefacts (MAs) to support and guide decision making, ranging from rich contextu- ally located examples of good practice (case studies, guidelines, etc.) to more abstract forms of representation which distil out the ‘essences’ of good practice (models or pat- terns). In the context discussed here, I argue that Mediating Artefacts can be derived from existing learning activities by a process of abstraction (Figure 2). The same Learning Ac- tivity (LA) can result in a range of abstractions: •textually based narrative case studies, describing the key features of the LA and perhaps barriers and enablers to its implementation, •more formal narratives against a specified formal methodology such as a Pedagogical Pat- terns (Goodyear, 2005; Goodyear & Retalis, 2010), •visual representations such as a mind map or formalized UML use case diagram, •vocabularies (Currier, Campbell, & Beetham, 2005), such as taxonomies, ontologies or folksonomies, •models (Conole, 2010; Mayes & Freitas, 2004), foregrounding a particular pedagogical approach (such as instructivism, problem-based learning or an emphasis on a dialogic or re- 1
- 4. flective approach). Figure 2: The range of Mediating Artefacts that can be derived from a learning activity Mediating Artefacts help practitioners to make informed decisions and choices in order to undertake specific teaching and learning activities. They differ in a number of respects: i) their format of presentation (textual, visual, auditory or multimedia), ii) their degree of contextualisation (ranging from abstract to fully contexualised), iii) the level of granulari- ty (i.e. the amount of details available within the MA about the learning activity), and iv) the degree of structure (flat vocabularies verses typologies). Examples of mediating artefacts Narratives or case studies provide rich contextually located MAs, which are valuable in that they describe the details of a particular pedagogical intervention. The drawback is that because they are so contextually located they may be difficult to adapt or repurpose. Pedagogical patterns provide a specifically structured means of describing practice build- ing on the work of the Architect Alexander (Alexander, Ishikawa, & Silverstein, 1977) by presenting the LA in terms of a problem to be solved, see for example Goodyear (Goodyear, 2005; Goodyear & Retalis, 2010) and the Pedagogical Patterns project.1 Vocabularies represent a more ‘atomistic’, text-based form of representation by describ- ing the components involved in learning activities. Currier et al. (2005) provide a review of educational vocabularies to describe practice and curriculum design which goes bey- ond the description of resources, focusing at the level of learning activities. They consider the range of vocabularies that have been developed in recent years to describe practice, including an inventory of existing pedagogical vocabularies, such as flat lists, taxonom- 1 http://www.pedagogicalpatterns.org/ 2
- 5. ies, thesauri, ontologies and classification schemes. Conole (2008) articulates the com- ponents of a learning activity. These include the context within which the activity occurs (subject, level, etc.), intended learning outcomes (mapped to Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Bloom, 1956)) associated with the activity, pedagogical approaches, the tasks the learners are required to do in order to achieve the learning out- comes and any associated assets and outputs (tools, resources, support or outputs). This has been adapted from a taxonomy developed in previous work (Conole, 2007). This can be used as a checklist in the design process helping to identify and consider each of the components involved in a learning activity and serves to illustrate the variety of factors which constitute a learning activity, further demonstrating the complexities involved in the design process. Diagrammatic or iconic presentations are important as they provide a means of provide a quick overview of the key features of an activity. They are valuable in that they can em- phasise different connections between aspects of the activity, give an indication of struc- ture and a sense of flow or movement. Learning activities can be represented visually ad- opting a particular iconic representation (Botturi, Derntl, Boot, & Figl, 2006; Botturi & Stubbs, 2008). Examples of this include the formal visual presentations used for UML use cases, see for example van Es and Koper (Van Ed & Koper, 2006) or the approach ad- opted by the AUTC Learning Design project (Agostinho, 2008; Agostinho, Oliver, Harper, Hedberg, & Wills, 2002). In the AUTC Learning Design project representation learning activities are broken down into a series of tasks which learners undertake, along- side these associated resources and support are illustrated. In addition to this visual ‘tem- poral sequences’ for each learning activity there is a rich range of additional information about the design process. As described elsewhere in this book, we have developed a par- ticular iconic representation that adopts a similar approach to these (Conole, 2007; Conole, Brasher, Cross, Weller, Clark, and White, 2008) focusing on a set of tasks adop- ted by each ‘role’ in the learning activity and an associated set of resources and tools. Tools, resources and outputs associated with each task are shown alongside, with arrows indicating connections. Models provide more abstract forms of representation. Simplistically, a model is an ab- stract representation that helps us understand something we cannot see or experience di- rectly. Beetham considers a model to be ‘a representation with a purpose’ with an intend- ed user, and distinguishes five usages of the word: ‘practice models or approach’, ‘theo- retical models’, ‘technical models’, ‘models for organisational change’, and students’ models (Beetham, 2004). Models are more than just iconic representations and are usually aligned to a particular pedagogical approach. Examples of learning models frequently used in e-learning in- clude: Kolb’s learning cycle (Kolb, 1984), Laurillard’s conversational framework (Laurillard, 2002), Salmon’s e-moderating framework (Salmon, 2003) and Wenger’s Community of Practice model (Wenger, 1998). See Chapter 18 and Conole (2010) for more details on these. Each emphasizes different aspects of learning. Kolb presents an ac- tion-based or ‘learning by doing’ model through a four-stage cycle (experience, reflec- tion, abstraction and experimentation). Laurillard describes the stages involved in the di- alogic interaction between a teacher and learner, demonstrating the way in which con- 1
- 6. cepts are internalized and adapted by each in the process. Salmon’s five-stage framework for supporting effective e-moderating in discussion forums, emphasizing the dialogic as- pects of socially situated theoretical perspectives. Finally, although not originally devel- oped for a learning context but now widely used in e-learning, Wenger’s theory of Com- munities of Practice is valuable as it considers the ways in which Communities of Prac- tice are formed, developed and fostered. He sees four main aspects: learning as communi- ty; learning as identity; learning as meaning; and learning as practice. Therefore each is valuable in that it helps to foreground particular aspects of learning, which can then be used to provide guidance. Understanding learning activities through Me- diating Artefacts Using the concept of Mediating Artefacts enables us to foreground the different aspects of a learning activity that a particular representation highlights. MAs have different strengths, weakness and purposes depending on the context of use and the configurations of their affordances and their constraints. For example, narratives and case studies pro- vide rich contextually located mediating artefacts that are valuable in that they describe the details of a particular pedagogical intervention. The drawback is that because they are so contextually located they may be difficult to adapt or repurpose. Models and patterns provide more abstract forms of representation. However because by their nature they are abstractions, practitioners may misunderstand how to effectively apply a model or pattern and hence as a result adopt a surface application of the model to their practice. Patterns are narratives but are grounded in a particular way of thinking which emphasizes a prob- lem-based approach to design. Agostinho rightly notes that there is currently no consistent notation system for learning design (Agostinho, 2006). The Mod4L project2 identified a range of representations that practitioners use to represent practice (Falconer & Littlejohn, 2006), including: taxonom- ies and matrices, visual presentations (flow diagrams, mind maps), case studies and les- son plans. The project used these with practitioners in a series of workshops to identify their usage and perceived value. They concluded that use is complex and contextualised and that no one presentation is adequate. This aligns with the arguments being made here; by identifying and labelling Mediating Artefacts we are able to better understand how learning activities are being represented and how these artefacts might be then used in a mediation role to guide new design. Meta-Mediating Artefacts Figure 3 shows how existing learning activities can be repurposed to create a new learn- ing activity. Firstly the essence of a LA is abstracted into a MA; different MAs highlight or foreground different aspects of the LA. Mediating artefacts can also be aggregated to provide more structured or scaffolded support for example in the form of interactive toolkits, planners or repositories (for example a library of cases studies). So for example a model, case study or pattern can become part of a repository, which may consist of simil- ar examples or might be a mixture of models, case studies and patterns. Case studies and models might be combined with some supporting text to form a pedagogical planner or 2 http://www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/mod4l/ 2
- 7. an interactive toolkit. Video clips, case studies, models and patterns might be reviewed and key points synthesised and put into a set of tips and hints or guidelines. Lever (2006) discusses a range of different meta-mediating artefacts and compares seven examples, which he terms ‘educational galleries’. Figure 3 illustrates the role of Mediating Artefacts and Meta-Mediating Artefacts in the design of a new learning activity. It shows how a new LA can be constructed either from individual Mediating Artefacts (such as a case study, model or iconic representation) or from a Meta-Mediating Artefact (such as a toolkit). The figure illustrates the process of abstracting learning activities into mediating artefacts that can then be used in the construction of a new learning activity. Figure 3: Mediating Artefacts, Meta-Mediating Artefacts - abstraction, aggregation and construction Therefore, mediating artefacts can be aggregated into meta-mediating artefacts of three main kinds: •Aggregates. The first type consists of aggregates of example MAs, for example repositories of case studies, patterns or models or a combined repository containing a mixture of all three. •Scaffolds. The second type consists of scaffolds of some kind, that synthesise key points and issues, for example tips and hints or guidelines. 1
- 8. •Mixed. The third type consists of a mixture of example MAs and scaffolds or supporting text, such as toolkits and pedagogical planners (as discussed in Chapter 14). Examples of meta-mediating artefacts associated with learning activities and learning design include the: •OTIS repository of case studies3 •e-learning centre library of case studies4 •series of effective practice guides and case studies produced by JISC5 which synthesise key features across their development programmes •AUTC learning design website6 •MERLOT database of resources and associated support7 This section has argued that by defining forms of representation which aim to describe aspects of a learning activity as Mediating Artefacts this helps to: foreground what each MA offers, ground this in a socio-cultural perspective emphasising both the mediational role of such artefacts in the design process and contextualising this alongside other as- pects involved and enable us to see the full cycle of abstraction and construction of learn- ing activities and how Mediating Artefacts are used in the process. Activity Theory The concept of Mediating Artefacts as described in this chapter derives from a socio-cul- tural perspective. This perspective recognizes that learning activities are contextually bound. Use of an Activity Theory lens is valuable as it helps to highlight the relationship between the different actors involved in the design process, as well as the context within which it takes place. Kaptelinin and Nardi provide a comprehensive overview of Activity Theory and its ori- gins (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006). Also see (Cole & Engeström, 1993; Daniels, et al., 2007; Engestrom, 2001; Engeström, et al., 1999; Kutti, 1996; Nardi, 1995). A key idea in CHAT is the notion of mediation by artefacts (Kuutti, 1991), which are broadly defined ‘to include instruments, signs, language, and machines’ (Nardi, 1995). Mediating Artefacts can support teachers and learners in making the best use of tools and resources. They mediate between the user and the end goal, as illustrated in Figure 4. They enable the user to elicit and represent the inherent designs associated with a particu- lar learning activity or resource. The vision is that if these designs can be abstracted and represented in a meaningful and understandable way, there is a greater chance of them being picked up, used and adapted by others, which, in turn, over time is likely to lead to an evolving understanding of how new tools and resources can be used. 3 http://otis.scotcit.ac.uk/ 4 http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/casestudies.htm 5 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning_pedagogy/elp_practice.aspx 6 http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/ 7 http://www.merlot.org 2
- 9. Figure 4: Representation of the relationship betweeen Mediating Artefacts, the use and the intended goal Figure 5 locates a Mediating Artefact within a CHAT framework. Figure 5: An Activity Theory representation of the learning design process The subject is the designer involved in creating a learning activity. The object therefore is the motivation to design a learning activity and the outcome is the designed learning ac- tivity. The process can be mediating by a range of Mediating Artefacts as described earli- 1
- 10. er. The use of CHAT enables us to more richly describe the context within which this pro- cess occurs. Firstly the design process will involve a number of roles (division of labour). At the simplest level this may consist of an individual teacher working alone to create a learning activity. However the design process may be team-based in which case different individuals might adopt different roles (e-learning advisor, facilitator, evaluator, etc.) or it might be a teacher working in conjunction with an educational developer or an instruc- tional designer. The rules help to contextualize the creation of the learning activity. They include rules and constraints that bound the design process – for example the institutional context, professional constraints and requirements, local practices and processes. Finally, the community node helps to identify the range of dialogic mechanisms that are used in the design process. These are important because they provide the designer with flexibility as they provide an opportunity to clarify and discuss issues around the creation of a learn- ing activity in further detail. In a series of interviews with course designers this dialogic process was cited as one of the most important mechanisms for guiding practice. See Conole et al. (2007) for a description of these case studies). Dialogic mechanisms cited included peer dialogue (for example as part of a course team meeting or by asking advice from a fellow teacher or e-learning expert about how they designed a learning activity), as well as interactions at conferences, workshops and staff development events. Surpris- ingly online networks and mailing lists were less frequently cited as a form of support. The learning activity produced as a result of this process can then be represented in a number of different forms of representations that can in turn act as Mediating Artefacts in the creation of new learning activities (Figure 5). The CHAT triangle on the left illustrates the creation of a learning activity LA1 using a Mediating Artefact MA1. The Learning Activity, LA1 can then be represented in a number of forms of representation (MA2, MA3 and MA4 – which might be narrative cases studies, an iconic representation, a video clip or a schematic model) which are in turn used as starting points in the creation of new learning activities (LA2, LA3 and LA4). 2
- 11. Figure 6: Repurposing a learning activity via a range of Mediating Artefacts An illustrative example of the application of this approach This section will show how learning design, Pedagogical Patterns and Open Educational Resources can be used together in the deconstruction and reconstruction of a resource. There are essentially four different types of Mediating Artefacts: Learning Design visual- isation tools, Learning Design methods, Pedagogical Patterns and Web 2.0 sharing and discussion tools (Figure 6). 1
- 12. Figure 7: Types of Mediating Artefacts The following scenario provides an example of how this might work in practice (Figure 7). It describes the creation of an OER and an associated design for the OER and shows how this can be repurposed in three different ways. Tools and resources from OER, Learning Design and Pedagogical Patterns research are used to help design the original OER and then to share and repurpose it. 2
- 13. Figure 8: A lifecycle showing the design and reuse of an OER Teacher A: The design phase The scenario begins with ‘Teacher A’. The context is that Teacher A is putting her begin- ners’ level Spanish material for the OU course L194. She makes the material available as an OER online in the Openlearn repository (http://openlearn.open.ac.uk). She uses the CompendiumLD tool for visualising to articulate different ways in which she thinks the materials can be used. Figure 9 shows part of the visual design, including the branching sequence to enable a beginner and more advanced route through the learning materials. In particular she is interested in showing how the materials can be used as both a revision exercise for an individual learner and at a more advanced level for a group of learners working collaboratively. Whilst developing her design in CompendiumLD, she has ac- cess to ideas and tips and hints from the Cloudworks social networking site for learning and teaching, as well as from a range of OER and Pedagogical Pattern repositories. These help her to refine her design thinking, to get ideas about how to structure activities in the sequences and suggestions of tools that be used for example for supporting a diagnostic e-assessment test or to enable students to communicate synchronously. 1
- 14. Figure 9: Part of the design sequence created using CompendiumLD Learner A: Use Scenario 1 – beginners’ route ‘Learner A’ is doing Spanish. She is a few weeks into the intermediate level Spanish course. The topic she is currently working on is ‘describing places’, she is looking for freely available tools or resources that might help her, she is also interested in finding study buddies to work with, who are at a similar level. 1.She explores the OpenLearn site 2.She finds the set of OERs for a beginners’ Spanish course – L194 – Portales from the Open University, UK, developed by Teacher A. 3.She finds alongside these resources a visual design – which provides an example of how these resources might be used. The design consists of the following aspects: a)A diagnostic e-assessment test to assess her level of understanding of the topics covered in the course. b)Two potential pathways: a) a beginners route where the learner works individually through the L194 OER material, b) an advanced route where the learner is assigned to a study group to work collaboratively around one aspects of the L194 OER material, Activity 2.1. In this advanced route, the existing activity (categorise 3 pictures of buildings as Latin American or Spanish) is replaced with one where the learner has to describe and compare the buildings, working collaboratively with other students and interrogating an expert for information. The activity exploits the jigsaw Pedagogical Pattern (Hernández-Leo et al., 2006) and also uses a free video conferencing tool to enable the study group to speak with a Spanish cultural expert. 4.She takes the diagnostic tests and the advice is that she takes the beginners’ route and com- pletes the L194 OER material. 2
- 15. Learner B: Use Scenario 2 – advanced route Learner B is also a student a few weeks into an intermediate level Spanish course. She works through a similar set of activities to Learner A but in this case after taking the dia- gnostic test the advice is that he takes the advanced route and focuses in on the adapted activity 2.1 as a collaborative exercise with other students. Teacher B: Use Scenario 3 – repurposes Teacher B is an Associate Lecturer teaching on the intermediate level Spanish course at the Open University, En Rumbo – L140, preparing for a face-to-face tutorial with his stu- dents. The topic is describing places. He finds the design described above and adapts it to produce two new variants of the design. 1. A classroom-based activity where the students describe the pictures using the Think-Pair-Share pattern (Hernández-Leo et al., 2006). 2. A similar exercise in terms of comparing three buildings but the students are asked to de- scribe buildings from their town and then talk with an expert (a student in Spain) who then describes their home town. The activity is set as a precursor to the first assignment exercise for the course. Figure 10 provides a conceptual overview and generalisation of this scenario – showing how an initial design can query existing resources such as Cloudworks, Pedagogical Pat- tern repositories and OER repositories such as Openlearn, use these to help create and populate an OER, along with an associated design, both of which can then be deposited back into sites such as Cloudworks and OpenLearn for reuse. 1
- 16. Figure 10: The OER design cycle In order to test our approach a number of workshops were held between May and June 2009. Evaluation of these indicates that while determining the pattern of an OER by con- sidering the end product is difficult, the adoption of these collaborative patterns is relat- ively simple and leads to new views on how OER content can be used. Typically this ex- tends the likely effort of the user and increases the potential for learning from the content without rewriting the core material. This paper has shown how design presentations along with a a small number of collaborative patterns can be used to guide rethinking how an OER works and help repurpose the OER to incorporate more collaboration and adaptabil- ity. Further aspects of evaluation of these workshops and analyse of the results is reported elsewhere (Conole, McAndrew, & Dimitriadis, 2010; Dimitriadis, McAndrew, Conole, & Makriyannis, 2009). Conclusion This chapter has described how the concept of Mediating Artefacts, derived from CHAT, can be applied to a learning design context. It has shown how this theoretical framework can be used to understand the different ways in which learning activities can be represent- ed and the ways in which Mediating Artefacts can be used to support the design process. The chapter argues that articulating the nature of different Mediating Artefacts helps clar- ify the ways in which each represents different aspects of any one learning activity. The chapter has described the range of Mediating Artefacts that are commonly used by practi- 2
- 17. tioners, highlighting their different uses. The difficulty of accurately capturing and rarefy- ing practice in this way has been discussed. Overall the chapter has attempted to demon- strate the complexity behind the deceptively simple questions: How can practitioners cap- ture and represent learning activities? and How can we provide scaffolding to support the design process? It offers a theoretical framework for addresses these questions using the concept of Mediating Artefacts as the conduit for both abstracting practice from existing learning activities and constructing new learning activities. As discussed at the start of this book, the mismatch between the potential of technologies and actual use in practice is one of the most important key challenges facing modern edu- cation. Focusing on improving design practices is probably one of the most effective ways of bridging this gap. 1