Today s learners need to be well-prepared for the complex demands of ever-fluctuating, international business environments. To help students contend with this rapid pace of change, our institutions of higher education need to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to ensure their success. But how to achieve this when what we teach learners today can easily change and even be irrelevant tomorrow? Heutagogy provides meaningful, pedagogical guidance for navigating a shifting higher education landscape, as well as a rapidly evolving technological one. This keynote will discuss the barriers that have kept us from implementing heutagogy within higher education in the past and the more recent developments that are causing those barriers to slowly begin slipping away. We will also consider why it is necessary for higher education to adopt forms heutagogical practice in order to prepare students for lifelong learning and the web 2.0 and social media that help us do just that.
Learning for Life: Preparing Learners for the Complexities of the Workplace Today and Tomorrow
1. LEARNING FOR LIFE:
Preparing Learners for the Complexities of
the Workplace Today and Tomorrow
Lisa Marie Blaschke
Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
2. HEUTAGOGY IS ABOUT…
Learners at the Center
Reflecting
Self-
on what is
determined
learned and
in learning
how
Developing Assessing
competencies own
and development
capabilities and progess
3. HEUTAGOGY IS ABOUT…
Non-linear Designs and Connections
creative commons
image from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/File:Internet_map_10
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6. BENEFITS OF HEUTAGOGY
Improves critical thinking and reflection
Increases learner engagement and motivation
Gives learners more control over learning (learner-centered)
Improves ability of learners to investigate and question
ideas – and apply knowledge in practical situations
Supports development of independent ideas and self-
confidence
Makes learners more capable and able to adapt to new
environments
Better prepares them for the complexities of the workforce
7. HEUTAGOGY DEFINED
Heutagogy is the study of
self-determined learning and
applies a holistic approach to
developing learner
capabilities with the learner
serving as “the major agent in
their own learning, which
occurs, as a result of personal
experience”
(Hase & Kenyon, 2007, p.
112)
9. EDUCATION TODAY
"Employers say that recent graduates often
don't know how to communicate effectively, and
struggle with adapting, problem-solving, and
making decisions”
10. INSTITUTIONAL RESISTANCE
Fear of losing control of:
Certification / Assessment
Learners
Influence of oversight
agencies
11. INSTRUCTOR RESISTANCE
Fear of losing control
of:
Classroom
Learning and teaching
Learners
Shift from center court
to the sidelines
12. LEARNER RESISTANCE
Fear of taking control
of and being
responsible for
learning
13. BUT CHANGE IS COMING
“The increasing
demand for education
“An avalanche is coming”
Institute for Public Policy Research
that is customized to (2013) Report
each student‟s unique “If you‟re a student…it is
“The State University of New
needs is driving the York‟s Board of Trustees on no longer a question of
development of new Tuesday endorsed an ambitious choosing a degree
technologies that vision for how SUNY might use course you want to do at
prior-learning
provide more learner a university…It‟s a
assessment, competency-
choice and control and based programs, and massive question of
allow for differentiated open online courses to help thinking…„How will I
students finish their degrees in
instruction.” keep learning through my
less time, for less money.”
HORIZON (2013) Steve Kolowich, The Chronicle of life, how do I combine a
Report Higher Education, March 20, 2013 range of educational
experiences not just from
“Revolution hits the one university but also
from a range of
universities” Thomas Friedman,
New York Times
(January 26, 2013)
universities - potentially
around the world?‟”
Sir Michael Barber, Times Higher
Education (March 13, 2013)
14. DRIVEN BY TECHNOLOGY
# Twitter
#heuta13
Blogs
Massive open online
courses (MOOCs)
Wikis
Badges
(Mozilla)
15. HOW WEB 2.0 ENABLES HEUTAGOGY
Connectivity with
others Wikis
(Collaborate
Discovery and sharing Open and create)
Educational
of information Resources Blogs
(OER) (Create and
Personal collection and (Collect and reflect)
adapt) Self-
adaptation of
information determine
(McLoughlin & Lee, 2007)
MOOCs d learning Twitter
(Connect,
collaborate, (Discover
and share) and share)
LinkedIn
(Connect)
17. DEVELOP LEARNER AUTONOMY
Consider learners‟ level of
autonomy and adjust
accordingly
Learner questionnaires
Learner contracts
Learner-directed questions
and discussions
18. ENCOURAGE REFLECTION
Build learner skills while
allowing them to
determine and reflect on
their learning path
Scaffolding of learning
activities to create
frameworks for
learning/discovery
Learner-directed questions
Action research
19. LET LEARNERS CREATE AND PLAY
Incorporate activities
for self-reflection, self-
and information-
discovery, experimenta
tion, and collaborative
information creation
Learning journals
Collaborative group
work
Communities of
practice
20. BUILD SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES
Support development
of personal knowledge
management, digital
literacy, and social
collaboration skills
Skill building activities
Social networking and
collaboration tools
21. ALLOW LEARNERS TO DEFINE SUCCESS
Assess learner
achievement by
negotiating the
assessment process
and making
curriculum flexible
Formative
assessment
Learning contracts
Self-assessment
22. USE OPEN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Choose a learning
environment that
supports free and
open learning
MOOC
Personal learning
environment (PLE)
Communities of
practice (CoPs) and
community
networks
23. CHANGE IS COMING
Our approach to teaching/training needs
to be learner-centered, not institution or
instructor-centered.
We need to give learners the freedom –
and the guidance and support – to
become self-determined learners.
Social media tools help us do both.
24. JOIN US!
Heutagogy Community of Practice:
Website: http://heutagogycop.wordpress.com/
LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Heutagogy-
Community-Practice-4776262
Learner-centered learning. Instructors and institutions are no longer at the center. Learners are.
Paths of learning ar not linear, but divergent. It’s also about connections with new guides, new gurus, new learning resources, other learners.Graphic: Design of the digital storytelling MOOChttp://wcetblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/ds106/
Instructors are no longer the sage on the stage, the learning guru. Heutagogy is about instructors as guides and facilitators. Instructors providing guidance and resources as needed, working together with the learner to define the learning path (road map).
Where does the institution fit in?Still trying to define their role in a heutagogical learning environment. Initially thought of them as curators. Better: providing a support network.Providing platforms and support; helping learners find their individual learning paths and make connections with guides
Here are the benefits.Based on initial research by Canning & Callan (2010), Ashton & Elliott (2008), Ashton & Newman (2006), here are some of the benefits of a heutagogical approach (see slide)Why it should (review list of benefits):Most importantly, prepares learners for complex workforce by giving them a better understanding of how they learn
So if there are so many benefits, why don‘t we see an explosion of heutagogical practice in our institutions?Ask audience: Why do you think it hasn‘t been adopted in institutions?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-UEducation:As Stewart has noted, today‘s education has been designed for industrialization, assembly line production of industry workersFocus on the instructor as the source of all learning, with passive consumption by learnersDesigned to funnel information into the learner brain for rote memory and retrieval„Sorts“ through learners as productsLearner meets institutional requirements, which dictates whether learning has occurredSuccess is defined by the institutionEven so, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that students are „Woefully unprepared“ for the workforce.As you have heard from Stewart already, though, heutagogy doesn‘t support these principles
Here are a few reasons why heutagogy has been slow to adoption.Institutional resistance (ivory tower syndrome, fear of losing control)Institutions don‘t want learners deciding what they will learn and how they will learn it. How do you control learners in such an environment where everyone is learning what they want to learn?Institutions are also driven by government regulators and accreditation agencies who play an influential role in dictating institutional policy.
Instructor resistance (fear of losing control)Instructors may have difficulty with assessment; because it’s learner-centered, assessment needs to be learner-specific.Heutagogy also means more work for the instructor; learning is no longer standardized.It also means handing over responsibility of learning to the learners. This changing role can be difficult to adjust to for instructors.
Learner resistance (fear of taking control)Learners still want to be spoon-fed their education to a large degree. And they don’t always see the opportunities.
Headlines from around the world.Forces of technology and globalization Education costs are increasingValue of education is decreasingCompetition among institutionsThe mountain may look stable---but an avalanche is on its way.And just recently: March 20, from The Chronicle: “The State University of New York’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday endorsed an ambitious vision for how SUNY might use prior-learning assessment, competency-based programs, and massive open online courses to help students finish their degrees in less time, for less money.”PLA, competency-based programs, MOOCs: all approaches and platforms that align with and support heutagogical learning.
MOOCs have shaken the pillars of education’s ivory towers, providing free Ivy League education to thousands of learners around the world. Who is in control?Learners are in class all the time. “With the Twitter hashtag, class is always open…It never ends.”Helen Keegan, EDEN Research Workshop, Leuven, Belgium (October 23, 2012)[Use the Twitter hashtag #heuta13 to see.]Blogs and wikis give learners an opportunity to create and collaborate on content. Self-publishing on the net.Digital badges: Learners can collect these as they define their pathway of learned skills and competencies.
Here are additional ideas.
Double-loop learning --- leading to transformative learning
Building competencies to lead to capabilities, in particular through the use of social media.
Would be a need for learner contracts such as those at Empire State College.
Three important take-aways for preparing for that change.