Concept Map - Original

This is a copy of my first concept map for my research topic, created as part of my application package for the GDER program. It serves as a record of my thinking at a point in time. It was created with VUE (Visual Understanding Environment, Tufts http://vue.tufts.edu/ ), which is a mind-mapping tool that can incorporate visual data.

Community of Inquiry

I was captivated by the article The Development of a Community of Inquiry Over Time in an Online Course: Understanding the Progression and Integration of Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presence (Akyol & Garrison, 2008), and so was looking forward to the presentation by Dr. Garrison. My interest stems from my professional role, rather than from my proposed research focus.

Blended learning models and on-line learning are new to me, both as a teacher and a learner. In March I started in a new role as Program Head, for the Master in Disaster and Emergency Management Program at Royal Roads University. It was important for me, in my new role, to get a sense of learner satisfaction, course feedback and perception of faculty. At the same time we were reviewing the number of credits in the program, and re-considering the benefit of the practicum. I read Dr. Garrison's article not too long after I had reviewed the course surveys, and found the study on the relationship between social, cognitive and teaching presence intriguing, especially the relationship between these elements and learner satisfaction and perception of learning. I read the article before arriving on campus, and it has influenced some of my decisions on how to proceed, in the short term at least, with our practicum course. I'll share how and why this article influenced my thinking.

The course survey questions we ask are both standard questions with a rating scale, as well as open ended questions. There was significant learner dissatisfaction with the practicum course, though it was a positive experience for some. I was able to interpret the learner comments and ratings through the lens of social, cognitive and teacher presence. I will address each one, but will start with an explanation of the practicum course site. The site is used more as a shell, than an instructional platform. Learners engage in a 60 hour practicum of their choosing, however they were not allowed to undertake a project that was within their current job responsibilities (in emergency or disaster management). The site contained a practicum handbook and other reference documents that they would need for the course. Learners need to submit a proposal, a mid-term report and a final report. My interpretation of the learner feedback, using the element, categories and indicators, as described in the article, is as follows.

Teaching presence:
Learners had generally low ratings of course satisfaction and of the instructor. After reading the article I came to a new understanding of the learner feedback and now believe that the categories of design and organization are central problems with the course, which in turn affected the other elements of social and cognitive presence. The course site functions as a shell, with little to no teaching presence. Learners work independently on their practicum project, and receive direct feedback from the instructor on their proposal, mid-term and final reports.

Cognitive presence:
While learners posed some questions online, they were usually referred back to the course documents for their answers. Because the course and use of the site was designed this way, there was little facilitation of discourse or direct instruction. Learners noted this and were dissatisfied. The other online course have a high level of online engagement and instructor facilitation, and likely creating a further contrast and comparison for learners. While there were many individual learning points, these were not shared, and hence the cognitive engagement was not in anyway supported through dialogue on the site. Learners were introduced to a new model, results based planning, and had difficulty understanding the concepts and were frustrated as a result. I beleive that if there had been more teaching presence, there would have been greater cognitive presence and greater learner satisfaction.

Social presence:
The program uses a cohort model, and so the learners were also taking other online courses, and had attended an initial 3 week residency where they formed strong bonds. Many learners described the residency experience as transformative. Give that the practicum site was used as a shell, that there was little or no group faciliation or instruction, social presence was low. One learner commented that it was a lonely site.

Have read the article, I came to understand the importance of, and relationship between, teaching presence, cognitive presence and social presence, and the importance of each aspect. I'll be teaching this practicum for the first time this fall, and will be making changes first to the design, learners will be able to do their practicum at their place of work, and as part of their job responsibilities (it is an applied Master's program), and the site will be a faciltiated learning site, just as any other site. The nature of the facilitation will differ, however teaching presence is important.

The future of the practicum and its value is another matter, and in that regard, during one of our library sessions I did a quick search on practicums and found a great article entitled The Purpose, Value and Structure of the Practicum in Higher Education: A Literature Review (Ryan, Toohey & Hughes, 1996), which provides a framework for considering the practicum overall.

I am now intrigued to go back and review the all of the learner survey results again. I am interested in determining which of the questions we ask align with teaching, cognitive and social presence, and what the relationship is between these categories and the survey results. The model will be helpful to me as I work with course faculty in the review and interpretation of survey results, and in future course design.

My question in class was about how with a cohort model, the results might change as learners progress through the program.

I now want to read the books that Dr. Garrison has authored and to learn more about the community of inquiry model.

Doc Talk - My Research + Lit Review Focus

The problem:
Climate change threatens humanity. Weather related disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity. Disasters have many impacts including loss of life and destruction of homes. Health impacts can be direct, such as loss of life, injury or illness, or indirect, such as loss of access to clean water or loss of crops and food supplies. We can reduce the risk and impact of disasters.

Purpose of my study:
My research plan is to design and test a method for using climate science expertise to support community assessment of changing local climate risks, and empowering communities to take action to reduce their risk from disaster.

Initial literature review focus (options):
1. what do we know about the factors which influence community climate adaptation
2. what are the design principles for communication of scientifically complex climate information to indigenous populations

Considering the development and definition of educational technology

Definitions
We often, in daily life, come to expect simple definitions of terms. Our experience and knowledge of a specific field of study give us further insight into specific terms and how they are understood and defined. Take my field of disaster management. What is a disaster? Most people commonly think of disaster as an event, and when asked for an example will suggest something such as a hurricane or tornado. These examples are based on a traditional hazard paradigm, which has a physical science orientation. A social science perspective, or a social constructionist view, considers the interactions between the natural, human and built environments in the definition of a disaster. With this lens we might consider that the Hurricane Katrina, for example, was a disaster not solely because of the physical properties of the storm and where it hit, but was a disaster because of other factors, such as land use planning, prior socio-political choices, the built environment, pre-existing social vulnerabilities, not to mention the challenges in the management response to the event. And so our perspective and orientation influences how we define, understand and give meaning to terms.

Definition of educational technology
I've come back to doctoral studies some 20+ years after completing my Master's degree. I remember using a computer with a big floppy disk, a dot matrix printer, and pulling journals and texts, in paper form, from the library. Such was the technology in those days. I have a strong bias and preference for visual media, stemming from my undergraduate studies in fine arts. When speaking at conferences, I use power point, but use mostly pictures, and narrative stories. It is not my style to read from a paper. My background and experience frames my consideration of the definition of educational technology provided by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology:

"Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate educational technological processes and resources."

While I have not yet read the complete book Educational Technology: A Definition with Commentary, I offer the following reflections, based on my reading of chapters 1,2,3 & 10.

Study
I appreciate that the conceptualization extends beyond research and is inclusive of other forms of systematic inquiry. Sparked by a conversation I had a year ago with Dr. Hanan Yaniv, I've been reflecting on how a body of knowledge is developed from both practitioner and researcher perspectives, and the nature of the relationship between the practitioner and the researcher in the development of the body of knowledge. Thus the term study is a more inclusive term, which recognizes that learning and knowledge may come from different sources.

Ethical Practice
I concur with Hlynka's (2008) critique of the inclusion of the term ethical in the definition. Januszewski and Molenda (2008) indicate that AECT has a Code of Professional Ethics. Most professions have some sort of ethical code, to which members are bound, either formally or informally. If a separate ethical code is already in existence, I would suggest such a code provides sufficient direction on ethical expectations and that the inclusion of the term in the definition is, as Hlynka suggests, problematic.

Improving Performance
While Chapter 3, Improving Performance, starts off stating " the term improving performance represents educational technology's claim of offering the societal benefit of accomplishing a worthy goal in a superior fashion", Molenda and Pershing quickly refine and limit improving performance to learners, teachers and designers, and organizations. This presumes these are the only contexts in which learning and teaching take place. This take me back to my earlier comment about how our own frames of references influence our perspective on a definition and our orientation to a field of study. How much do we learn outside of schools and organizations, and how much of this learning is supported by educational technology? My research interest lies in the area of climate change adaptation. The climate changes we are and will continue to experience are and will continue to have significant impacts on society, and vulnerable populations in particular. Most of us will learn about climate change and consider mitigation and adaptive strategies through informal or non-formal educational contexts and approaches. And the power and potential of educational technology to support our learning, build our knowledge, and shape our response to climate change is significant. And so I would argue that the AECT definition of educational technology, has an formal educational bias, which is expressed by the inclusion of the term improving performance. Our lens and experience shape our understanding, and I do understand that much of the work in the educational technology field has been shaped and influenced by formal educational practitioners and researchers, however the application and power of educational technology offers "societal benefit" other than performance improvement.

Hlynka, D. (2008). Educational Technology: A Definition for the 21st Century. Educational Technology, 48(6), 48 – 50.

Januszewski, A. & Molenda, M. (Eds.). (2008). Educational technology: A definition with commentary. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Reflections on Affordances in Second Life for Virtual Patients

I know little about Second Life, and the potential that it may offer in educational contexts. Thus I was intrigued with Dr. Kopp's presentation as it provided me with an introduction to a new tool, as well giving me an overview of her research and professional interests. My reflections are based on her presentation and my review of her draft paper Affordances in Second Life for Virtual Patients (2009).

My reflections:

1) finding a research topic and selecting the research design:
Dr. Kopp's own experience and knowledge of virtual simulation approaches, in particular with Second Life, where factors that seemed to influence her response to the paper by (Cook & Triola, 2009). And her specific critique and questioning of the findings of Cook and Triola influenced the approach to her study. I appreciate her paper as an example of how to respond to the work of others, in order to validate or refute their claims.
2) further thoughts about the 'continuum' model:
Cook and Triola (2009) offer a linear continuum model for comparison of approaches to patient simulation, with traditional instruction on one end, and experience with a real patient on the other. Three alternative models are presented in a rank order, from less effective, to more effective, in simulating a real patient. In Dr. Kopp's final analysis she states "The results of the comparison across virtual patients in Second Life, standardized patients, and human patient simulators does not seem to support a continuum of competency with virtual patients at the low end". If I understand her analysis correctly, the continuum model itself could be questioned, not just the ordering of options from least to most effective. While Dr. Kopp makes the clear case that 3D virtual patient models are not at the low end of the continuum, I believe she also makes a case for questioning the value of a continuum. Each instructional option may be best suited to certain tasks, equal to other options in some tasks, and have specific constraints. These are the factors that should guide the choice of selection, and hence I am not convinced that a continuum serves any value.
3) increased knowledge about second life and its potential application:
I've not been on Second Life, and had no personal interest to consider this. That being said, I have spent much time, on my journey to selecting a doctoral research topic, considering how as a practitioner I have come to know what I know from my disaster management experience, and why it is that training and education alone does not seem to substitute for this experience. And this has led me to consider how it is we might offer opportunities in educational contexts, through virtual simulation, of some of the reality of disaster experience.

Cook, D.A. & Triola, M.M. (June 2009). Virtual patients: a critical literature review and proposed next steps. Medical Education, 43: 303–311.
Kopp, G. (2009). Affordances in Second Life for Virtual Patients (Draft).

Finding and selecting a research topic

In this post I will describe my proposed research topic, chronicle how I came to select and refine the topic, and the share the questions I still have about my research. I welcome the opportunity to share and discuss my research interests, and have found the feedback from my supervisor and others to be of great assistance.


Proposed Research Topic and Questions:
Before describing the journey that lead to the selection of my topic I will briefly summarize my research focus:

The purpose of my study is to design and test a climate adaptation learning system in selected areas in Tanzania using a) video mediated strategies; b) participatory processes; and c) climate science and disaster risk reduction expertise.

This study is designed to contribute to a broader research agenda that seeks to scale up climate adaptation programs, based on tested strategies, thereby contributing to the reduction of the humanitarian impacts of climate change.

Building on the concept of a learning system, and drawing on reading I had done about knowledge transfer and learning in the field of disaster management, I have identified a series of questions that form part of my planned study and that consider the relationship between local knowledge and expert knowledge:

Indigenous knowledge - what observations do people have about climate and its impact on their lives?
Knowledge representation and transfer - how can scientifically complex climate information be effectively communicated (using video/visual media)?
Knowledge transfer - what are the program design elements of a disaster risk reduction program, incorporating climate change information, which influence climate adaptation at a community level?
Knowledge representation and transfer - how do communities represent their knowledge and experience of weather, climate, climate impacts, and adaptation strategies (using video tools)?

Research Topic Questions and Considerations:
As my proposed study is part of a larger research agenda, I recently touched based with Dr. Pablo Suarez, a climate scientist with whom I've been working, regarding the status and direction of the the project. The funder for the larger project has changed. Initial plans were for my research to be undertaken in an urban setting in Tanzania, and this has now changed to rural locations. There is also a more specific focus on health issues related to climate change, and there seems to be de-emphasis, from the written materials at least, on the use of video-mediated strategies.

The Journey to Select My Research Topic
to come...

My professional background