3 Generations of Distance Education Pedagogy, Terry Anderson & Jon Dron 2011
1. 3 Generations of Distance
Education Pedagogy
Terry Anderson & Jon Dron 2011
Presented by Rose Wauchope & Cinzia Cursaro
2. Introduction
Distance education – educating OUTSIDE the classroom
Anderson and Dron explore distance education systems as they have evolved over three
eras of educational, social and psychological development.
Each era developed distinct pedagogies, technologies, learning activities, and assessment
criteria that reflected the time in which they developed. (p 81)
Distance Education theorists (Garrison, 1995; Nipper, 1989) Cited in (Anderson and Dron
2011), describe and define distance education by the predominate technologies
employed for delivery.
Technology sets the beat and the timing.
The pedagogy defines the moves. (p 81)
3. COI – Community of Inquiry Model
COI – Community of Inquiry model of analytical structure (COI) model (Arbaugh, 2008;
Garrison, 2009; Garrison, Archer, & Anderson, 2003) Cited in (Anderson and Dron
2011, p 81)
This model examines the three pedagogies of distance education using:
• Teaching presence – availability and interaction with the student
• Cognitive presence - the means and context through which learners construct and
confirm new knowledge
• Social presence – Engagement with participants
4. Three Generations of Distance Education Pedagogy
Three different generations of Distance Education pedagogy
1) Cognitive - Behaviourist – latter half 20th century
2) Social Constructivist –latter 20th early 21st century
3) Connectivist-current
Anderson and Dron state that none of these generations are eliminated, rather
all 3 models of Distance Education pedagogy are in
existence today. (p81)
5. GENERATION ONE
The Cognitive-Behaviourist Pedagogy of Distance Education
Cognitive and behaviourist pedagogies focus on how learning was defined, practiced and
researched in latter half of 20th century
Behavioural Learning Theory: new behaviours, or changes in behaviour that are acquired
as a result of an individual’s response to stimuli. Focus on individual learner and
measurement. Skinner (rats), Thorndike and Watson (p 82)
Cognitive pedagogy emerged out of Behaviourist Learning theory to account for
motivation, attitudes and mental barriers (Miller 2003) Cited in (Anderson and Dron 2011,
p82)
Cognitive models were based on a growing understanding of the functions and operations
of the brain, particularly the ways in which computer models were used to describe and
test learning and thinking (p 82)
6. GENERATION ONE
The Cognitive-Behaviourist Pedagogy of Distance Education
The CB model is teacher or instructionally designed
Formalized teacher guided instruction, teacher led and controlled – little interactivity
Isolated learning, this pedagogy was only based on the content delivered, it did not take
into account the learner context
Examples of technologies used in Generation one Distance Education Pedagogy
print packages, mass media (radio, television) and postal correspondence
Cognitive-Behaviourist models are theories of teaching
7. GENERATION ONE
Cognitive presence in Cognitive-Behaviourist Model
Focus on the importance of using an instructional systems design model where
learning objectives are clearly identified and stated.
Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em
Tell ‘em
Then tell ‘em what you told ‘em
‘Later developments in cognitive theory have attempted to design learning
materials in ways that maximized brain efficiency and effectiveness by attending
to the types, ordering, timing, and nature of learning stimulations’ (Anderson
and Dron 2011, p83)
8. GENERATION ONE
Social Presence in Cognitive-Behaviourist Models
Cognitive Behaviourist era was completely defined by isolated learning – learning
was thought of as an individual process
Individual learning resulted in high levels of student freedom and learning pace
and worked well with technologies available at the time
9. GENERATION ONE
Teaching Presence in Cognitive-Behaviourist Models
Teacher is removed because they are not in the classroom with the student
learning
The learning experience is teacher driven and guided – isolated from student
Content is completely externally prescribed – very little interaction between
teacher and student
Teacher presence is only felt through text or recorded sound (p 83)
10. GENERATION TWO
Social-Constructivist Pedagogy of Distance Education
Social constructivist pedagogies, developed in conjunction with the development of two-
way communication technologies.
The Constructivist model sprang from the work of Vygotsky and Dewey before it was
largely developed by Piaget and Papert (p 84)
Technology became widely used to create synchronous and asynchronous learning,
instead of just transmitting information
Social-constructivist pedagogy acknowledges the social nature of knowledge creation in
the minds of individual learners (p 84)
Each learner constructs new knowledge by integrating and building on their prior
knowledge
Learning environment is learner-centred and stresses the importance of group work
11. GENERATION TWO
Social-Constructivist Pedagogy of Distance Education
The improvement of technologies that connected “many-to-many” enhanced
Social-constructivists models. (p 85)
Enabled greater use of social-constructivist pedagogy in DE.
Success of Generation Two DE pedagogies depended on the widespread
availability of the internet / supporting technologies
Examples of technologies used in Generation Two Distance Education Pedagogy
world wide web, mobile technologies, email, skype, facebook, instagram, twitter
etc,
Social-Constructivist models are theories of learning
12. GENERATION TWO
Cognitive presence in Social-Constructivist Pedagogy
Cognitive presence in social constructivist pedagogy resonates with DE, much of
which takes place in the workplace and other real-world contexts outside of
formal classrooms (p 85)
Learners are actively engaged
Learning on the job – role modelling and imitation
This rich student, and student-teacher interaction constituted a new era – new
learning environment
13. GENERATION TWO
Social presence in Social-Constructivist Model
Social interaction is a defining feature of constructivist pedagogy
Requires motivation, feedback and alternative viewpoints
Active and collaborative learning
‘It is likely, as learners become more acclimatized and skilled in using ever-
present mobile communications and embedded technologies, that barriers
associated with a lack of social presence will be further reduced, allowing
constructivist models to thrive.’ (p 86)
14. GENERATION TWO
Teacher presence in Social-Constructivist Model
‘The educator is a guide, helper, and partner where the content is secondary to
the learning process; the source of knowledge lies primarily in experiences.”
(Kanuka and Anderson (1999) Cited in (Anderson and Dron 2011, p 86)
Teacher provides on-going guidance and interventions
Teacher sets content and enriches the educational experience by choosing the
learning environment
‘Teaching presence in constructivist pedagogical models focuses on guiding and
evaluating authentic tasks performed in realistic contexts.’ (p 86)
15. GENERATION THREE
Connectivist Pedagogy of Distance Education
The third Generation of distance education introduced interactive technologies – audio,
text and web and immersive conferencing. Siemens, Downes and Castells are the main
contributors of this pedagogy
Connectivist pedagogy assumes that information is plentiful and that the learner’s role is
not to memorize or even understand everything, but to have the capacity to find and
apply knowledge when and where it is needed. (p 87)
‘learning may reside in non-human appliance’ (Siemens’ 2005) Cited in (Anderson and
Dron, 2011, p 87)
Connectivist pedagogy was developed in the information age of a networked era
(Castells, 1996) Cited in (Anderson and Dron, 2011, p 87)
Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning
16. GENERATION THREE
Connectivist Pedagogy of Distance Education
The ability to see connections between fields, ideas and concepts is a core skill
Currency (accurate, up-to date knowledge) is the objective of all connectivist learning
activities
Connectivist models rely on networked connections between people, digital artifacts and
content which would have been inconceivable pre the internet(p87)
Is enhanced by the focus on reflection and sharing of these reflections in blogs, twitter
posts and webcasts (p88)
Moves beyond CB and SC pedagogy
Examples of technologies used in Generation Three Distance Education Pedagogy
Blogs, Social media, voiceThread, wiki, web conferencing – Webnair, Moodle
Moocs (Massive online Open Courses) Interactive user forums
Connectivist models are distinctly models of knowledge
17. GENERATION THREE
Cognitive presence in Connectivist Model
Assumes that learners can access networks and are able to use these networks to
complete tasks
Connectivist learning happens best in network contexts, as opposed to individual
or group contexts (Dron & Anderson, 2007) Cited in (Anderson and Dron, 2011, p
87)
Members interact and filter information for relevance and contribute in order to
improve their knowledge, creation and retrieval skills – results in creating their
own networks = increased social capital (p87)
18. GENERATION THREE
Social presence in Connectivist Model
Is only successful through the development of social presence and social capital
and network creation
Others are able to observe, comment and contribute
“The activities, choices, and artefacts left by previous users are mined through
network analytics and presented as guideposts and paths to knowledge that new
users can follow” (Dron, 2006) Cited in (Anderson and Dron, 2011, p 88)
19. GENERATION THREE
Teacher presence in Connectivist Model
‘Unlike earlier pedagogies, the teacher is not solely responsible for defining,
generating, or assigning content. Rather, learners and teacher collaborate to
create the content of study, and in the process re-create that content for future
use by others.’ (p 88)
Assessment combines self-reflection with teacher assessment of the
contributions to the current and future courses.
Teaching presence in connectivist learning environments also focuses on teaching
by example.
Teachers, who often struggle with IT are challenged by rapidly changing
technologies, so connectivist learning includes learners teaching teachers and
each other. (p 89)
21. Group Discussion Questions….
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each generation?
Do you use any of these pedagogies in your teaching today?
What will we see develop in future generations of distance education?
23. Future Generations of Distance Education
The nature and mode of communications although more refined will not change much with emerging
technologies
Our networks will become more varied and specialized
Connectivist approach must become more intelligent and this will come from: data mining and analytics,
and from the CROWD itself
It will move towards more object-based contextual and activity based models of learning
Many-to many communication with a more targeted audience (collectives) who can then respond
directly back to us
‘The PageRank algorithm behind Google takes multiple intelligent choices and combines them to provide
ranked search results (Brin & Page, 2000)
Wikipedia includes many crowd-based or collective elements to help others guide our learning (p91)
Next generation of DE pedagogy will be enabled by technologies that make effective use of collectives
24. Summary
Anderson and Dron conclude by stating,
‘… all three current and future generations of DE pedagogy have an important place
in a well-rounded educational experience. Connectivism is built on an assumption of
a constructivist model of learning, with the learner at the centre, connecting and
constructing knowledge in a context that includes not only external networks and
groups but also his or her own histories and predilections. At a small scale, both
constructivist and connectivist approaches almost always rely to a greater or lesser
degree on the availability of the stuff of learning, much of which… is designed and
organised on CB models…Cognitvist, behaviourist, constructivist, and connectivist
theories each play an important role.’ (Anderson and Dron, 2011, 92)