A Very Short

Introduction to
Educational Technology

Mike Sharples
Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University
Definitions

Pedagogy
“The theory and practice of teaching, learning and assessment”

Sharples, M., McAndrew, P., Weller, M., Ferguson, R., FitzGerald, E., Hirst, T., Mor, Y., Gaved, M. and
Whitelock, D. (2012). Innovating Pedagogy 2012: Open University Innovation Report 1. Milton Keynes:
The Open University.

Educational technology
Interactive technology to enable effective learning (may include fixed,
desktop, mobile and wearable devices and their software - and
combinations of these)

Technology Enhanced Learning

Learning supported by individual or multiple technologies. In Europe, now
used in preference to e-learning, or computer-assisted learning
Contents

A short history of educational technology

Theories of learning with technologies

Evaluation of learning with technologies

3
1920s: Pressey’s Self-testing machine

“There must be an ‘industrial revolution’ in

education, in which educational science
and the ingenuity of educational
technology combine to modernize the
grossly inefficient and clumsy procedures
of conventional education. Work in the
schools of the future will be marvelously
though simply organized, so as to adjust
almost automatically to individual
differences and the characteristics of the
learning process. There will be many
laborsaving schemes and devices, and
even machines – not at all for the Image copyright OSU photo archives
mechanizing of education, but for the
freeing of teacher and pupil from
educational drudgery and incompetence.”

Sidney Pressey (1933) Psychology and the New Education 4

1950s Linear programming and teaching machines

● Based on scientific theory of ‘operant

conditioning’ (changing behaviour by use of
reinforcement after a desired response)
● Presentation of a linear sequence of frames of
information, in small steps
● Immediate reinforcement of student
responses, but the same response for each
student
● Gradual progression to establish complex
repertoires
● Fading or gradual withdrawal of stimulus
support
● Issues: finding reinforcers that are effective
and ethical; matching individual students; In B.F. Skinner (1958) Teaching
incorrect responses Machines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTH3ob
5
1IRFo
Emerging themes

● Educational technology
● Self-paced learning
● Interactive learning
● Learning design
● Formative assessment
● Motivation for learning

6
1950s: Branching programs

● Based on theories from

cybernetics (adaptive systems,
feedback control)
● Using information from errors to
eliminate incorrect responses
(vs. ensuring correct responses
and reinforcing them)
● Student is presented with
multiple choice response
● Feedback depends on the
student’s response Adaptive teaching machine
● Move towards adaptive and
personalised teaching 7
Multiple choice branching

8
1960s: Computer-assisted instruction

● Computer-based teaching
● Adaptive teaching systems
● Programming languages for
education (BASIC: Beginner’s All
Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)
● “Computers and computer-managed
instruction systems can be expected
to play a major role in transforming
the educational process by giving the Multi-media adaptive teaching system,
with ‘light-pen’ touch screen, 1968
teacher a sophisticated aid to allow
for flexible, multimedia, individualized
education at a relatively small
increase in cost.”
H.J. Bruder, Computer-Managed Instruction, Science,
1968
9
Instructivist pedagogy

● Learning as
information transfer

● Instructor-led

● Sequenced
learning elements

● Inform – test –
explain

● Adaptivity &
personalisation

10
1970s: Large scale teaching systems

● Large scale projects

● Networked teaching
systems
● Logo and microworlds
● Computers as coaches
● AI-based intelligent
tutoring systems
‘Hangman’ software on
Commodore PET computer

11
1970s: PLATO IV
● 950 networked terminals in 140 sites
● 8000 hours of instructional material by 3000 authors
● Aim to provide ubiquitous computer-based teaching
(proposal for 1-million terminal PLATO V)
● High resolution flicker-free plasma display screen
(transparent so that colour slides can be overlaid on it);
touch panel; audio and slide; music synthesisers
● TUTOR authoring language
● First use of graphic simulations for teaching
● Evaluation: “no compelling statistical evidence that
PLATO had either a positive or negative effect on
student achievement”; no significant effect on student PLATO IV touch-screen networked
learning terminal
drop-out rates; PLATO students showed much more
favourable attitude towards computers.
● In 1992 the company NovaNET was formed with the
rights to PLATO technology. Changed name to
Edmentum in 2012.
12
1970s: Logo programming for children

● Seymour Papert - student of the

psychologist Jean Piaget
● Learning through programming computers
● Logo programming language and
computer-controlled robotic ‘turtle’ for
children
● Claims that programming,
proceduralisation and debugging are
valuable problem-solving skills
● “In many schools today the phrase
“computer aided instruction” means
making the computer teach the child. One Children using a ‘button box’
might say the computer is being used to to control and programme a turtle
program the child. In my vision the child
programs the computer”
Papert, Mindstorms, 1980
13
1980s: Microcomputers in education

● Multimedia personal computers

● Videodisks
● Networked-based teaching and
computer-supported
collaborative learning
● Educational simulations
● Commercial teaching and
training packages
Children using educational software on
a BBC microcomputer

14
1990s: online learning

● Edutainment
● Integration of video, animation,
hypermedia
● Notebook computers
● Web-based learning
environments (VLEs, MLEs)
● Integrated learning systems
● Intelligent agents ‘Smart Operator’ adaptive simulation-based
training package with ‘intelligent agent’
feedback on learner errors

15
2000s: mobile learning

● Web-based virtual learning

environments in universities
and colleges
● Mobile and contextual
learning
● Seamless learning
● Multimedia learning spaces
● Spoken language
interaction with tutoring
systems

HandLeR mobile learning technology

16
Old and new learning (1990s – 2010s)

E-learning in the 1990s Technology-enhanced learning

Constructivist learning
Online learning
VLEs and MLEs
Media-equipped teaching rooms
Desktop computer rooms
Creating re-usable learning objects Open learning and student-created
Collaborative learning
Evaluation of learning gains
Effective learning technology
in the 2010s
Social-constructivist learning
Blended learning
Personal Learning Environments
Flexible learning spaces
Support for students with multiple
personal technologies
media
Social networked learning
Evaluation of learning
transformations
Effective, scalable and sustainable
learningtechnology
17
The new science of learning
● Computational learning
● Infer structural models from the environment
● Learn from probabilistic input
● Social learning
● Learning by imitation
● Shared attention
● Intersubjectivity
● Neural learning
● Learning supported by brain circuits that link
perception and action
● Developmental learning
● Behavioural and cognitive development
● Neural plasticity
● Teaching and learning
● Principles of effective teaching
● Contextual and temporal learning
● Learning within and across contexts A.N. Meltzoff, P. K. Kuhl, J. Movellan, & T. J.
● Cycle of engagement and reflection Sejnowski (2009) Foundations for a New Science
of Learning, Science 325 (5938), 284.
● Technology-enabled learning
● Learning as a distributed socio-technical system
● Orchestration of learning

18
The new sciences of learning

“Insights from many different

fields are converging to create a
new science of learning that may
transform educational practice”

“A key component is the role of

‘the social’ in learning. What
makes social interaction such a
powerful catalyst for learning?”

A.N. Meltzoff, P. K. Kuhl, J. Movellan, & T. J.

Sejnowski (2009) Foundations for a New Science
of Learning, Science 325 (5938), 284.

19
Types of learning

Learning as… Learning sciences…

Changing behaviour Neuroscience
Behavioural science
Enhancing skills Cognitive development
Storing information Information sciences
Gaining knowledge Cognitive sciences
Epistemology
Making sense of the world Social sciences
Socio-cultural and activity theory
Interpreting the world in a new way Phenomenology
Personal change Psychoanalysis

20
A theory of learning for the mobile age

21
What is distinctive about learning in a mobile age?

● Mobility as a central concern

● Learners are continually on
the move
● Need to understand learning
as a mobile and contextual
activity
● Involves a blend of portable,
wearable and fixed
technologies
● Embraces learning in both
formal and informal settings
● Scalable and sustainable

22
Theories of learning with technology

John Dewey’s Instrumental inquiry

● Knowing is activity in the world, involving a combination of thoughts and
external artefacts as tools for inquiry
● Every reflective experience is an instrument for production of meaning
● Inquiry-led learning

Yrjö Engeström’s Expansive Activity Theory

● Learning is a cultural-historical activity mediated by tools, including
technology and language
● Activity systems contain the possibility for expansive transformation, as
contradictions are internalised and resolved
● Social-constructivist learning

Gordon Pask’s Conversation Theory

● Conversation is the fundamental process of learning
● Learning is a cybernetic process of “coming to know” through mutual
adjustment and negotiation
● Conversational learning 23
Dewey’s instrumental inquiry

● Education should be based upon the quality of experience

● For an experience to be educational, there must be continuity
and interaction
● Continuity: experience comes from and leads to other
experiences
● Interaction: when the experience meets the internal needs or
goals of a person
● Pragmatic instrumentalism: Knowing is activity in the world,
involving a combination of thoughts and external artefacts as
tools for inquiry

24
Dewey and social learning

“The principle that development of experience comes about

through interaction means that education is essentially a social
process. This quality is realized in the degree in which
individuals form a community group. … It is absurd to exclude
the teacher from membership in the group. As the most mature
member of the group he has a peculiar responsibility for the
conduct of the interactions and inter-communications which are
the very life of the group as a community.”

Dewey, “Experience and Education” (1938)

25
Dewey and reflective learning

Learning comes when a person strives to overcome a problem

or breakdown in everyday activity, or recognises part of the
continual flow of activity and conversation as worth
remembering

Every reflective experience is an instrument for the

production of meaning

A mis-educative experience is one that stops or distorts growth

for future experiences

A non-educative experience is when a person has not done any

reflection and so has not obtained lasting mental growth

26
Engeström’s expansive activity theory
Learning as cultural historical activity

● Learning is a cultural-historical activity mediated by tools,

including technology and language
● Activity is the focus of analysis
● Activity systems are multi-voiced, with many perspectives,
transitions and interests in continual interaction
● Activity systems are shaped over time
● Activity systems contain the possibility for expansive
transformation: they go though extended periods of qualitative
change, as the contradictions are internalised and resolved,
leading to the emergence of new structure, tools and activity.

27
Example
University as an activity system

● Learning at university is an activity system shaped by the

history of higher education and mediated by tools, including
technology and academic language
● Teaching and learning activity is the focus of analysis
● Teaching and learning activity systems are multi-voiced: many
teaching methods, learning strategies, cultures
● Teaching and learning systems in universities are shaped
over time
● University systems contain the possibility for expansive
transformation. For example, students bringing their own
devices into lectures initially caused tensions and disruptions
- but also possibilities for radical transformation to a more
student-centred learning activity. 28
 Pask and learning as conversation
● A theory of how we come to
know
● Derived from cybernetics
● A conversation is the
minimum necessary
structure to enable learning
- Multiple conversations within one
mind
- One conversation across multiple
minds
● Can involve technology as a
conversational partner
● Conversations about the how
and why of a topic
● Conversations about the how
of learning (for example
discussing study skills and
reflecting on experiences as a
learner)
● Conversations about purposes,
the why of learning, where the
emphasis is on encouraging
personal autonomy and
accepting responsibility for
one’s own learning
29
Conversational framework
Adapted from Laurillard (2002) Rethinking University Teaching.
A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. London: Routledge)

30
Evaluating learning
Visible Learning – John Hattie

● John Hattie - synthesis of

over 800 meta-studies of
what influences learning
success
● All the meta-studies used a
standard measure of ‘effect
size’
● Important influences on
learning success:
- make learning expectations Each possible influence on learning is measured in
and progress visible terms of positive or negative ‘effect size’
J. Hattie. Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800
- provide rapid feedback meta-analyses relating to achievement

31
Where next?
http://hotel-project.eu/content/learning-theories-map-richard-millwood

32
 Weak signals
Open University Innovating Pedagogy
● Annual report
● Explores new forms of
teaching, learning and
assessment for an
interactive world
● To guide teachers and
policy makers in productive
innovation
● www.open.ac.uk/innovating