Of Mice and Minivans (1)
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Presentation by myself, Eamon Costello (DCU) & Enda Donlan (DCU) at the OOFHEC2019: the Online, Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference in UNED Madrid, October 2019.
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Of Mice and Minivans (1)
- 1. Of Mice and Minivans: The use of Metaphors to deconstruct Virtual Learning Environments EADTU Conference 2019, UNED MADRID
- 2. Hello! Dr. Tom Farrelly, Institute of Technology Tralee - @TomFarrelly Dr. Eamon Costello, NIDL, Dublin City University - @eamO Dr. Enda Donlan, Dublin City University - @donenda 2
- 3. CD ROMS 3 Betamax Video Audio Cassettes “The VLE/LMS Is Dead….(but we'll probably take five years to realise it).” (M. Weller 2007)
- 4. Metaphors Metaphors can be important catalysts in connecting newly introduced information with existing knowledge constructs (Dubozy & Reynolds 2010) . Can help make new concepts or ideas accessible, by relating them with what is already known through easily recognisable conceptions. 4
- 5. Metaphors - Caveat Emptor However, they can also act as a constraint in that aspects of the phenomena that do not fit neatly with the metaphor may be side-lined or ignored, privileging one aspect or interpretation over another, thus impeding “a more thoughtful approach to conceptualizing and implementing new technologies” (Mason, 2018, p.551). 5
- 6. Search Strategy Search Terms: ⬡ VLE OR LMS ∙ AND ⬡ Metapho* ∙ AND ⬡ Like ⬡ As 6 Databases: ⬡ Academic Search Complete ⬡ Education Search Complete ⬡ Google Scholar ⬡ ERIC
- 7. A classroom where all the seats are bolted to the floor (Dale 2004) ⬡ ‘a good room set-up can’t make a class succeed by itself, but a bad room set-up can make it fail’ ⬡ VLE is not conducive to adaptation and that this gives rise to an inherent, instructor-centric pedagogy being embedded within it. 7
- 8. The ‘Umbilical Link Back to the Tutor’ (Clarke & Abbott, 2008) ⬡ Highlighted the communication and support affordances ⬡ “When tutors were asked to describe how the VLE supported their teaching, their responses emphasised communication and collaborative learning within online communities of practice… it promoted co-dependence between students within the course-based community right from the start of teaching practice” (p.176) 8
- 9. Supermarkets, Schools and Airports Dobozy & Reynolds (2010) ⬡ Adopts a progressional classification in terms of user engagement – Figure 1 Dobozy & Reynolds (2010) : 9
- 10. ‘Trojan Mouse’ - Brown, Paewai, & Suddaby (2010) ⬡ A Gateway to further developments 10 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
- 11. The ‘One-Stop-Shop’ (Robertson, 2010) ⬡ Harnessing the VLE but not by the tutor/lecturer ⬡ Academic Liaison Librarian - Develop a one-stop- shop for information resources and help in developing information skills in order to save “busy students time when looking for material relevant to their assignments” (p.93). 11
- 12. VLE as a Kenwood Chef – (Cosgrave, 2012) ⬡ ‘They come with a lot of interesting looking blades and attachments, but most people use them only to make smoothies’ ⬡ However, if you have access to those more advanced blades and attachments that can, potentially, be used at a later stage. 12 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
- 13. Fast-Food Kitchen (Woodward, 2014) ⬡ It does exactly what it is meant to do. It is built for people with minimal skills to make cheap food quickly at scale. It isn’t meant to be a training ground so people can move up to gourmet cooking. ⬡ …‘the ingredients, the hardware, the thinking behind the layout [of the VLE] is focused entirely on a scale delivery of certain kind of “food”’; similar to fast food the VLE reaches the minimum quality that people will tolerate in exchange for convenience and low cost. ⬡ 13
- 14. Walls and Silos (Watters, 2014 and Groom & Lamb, 2014) ⬡ Walls …the VLE as a segmented and closed online space; ‘each course is a separate entity [...] hermetically sealed in a walled off online space, much like a walled off classroom’, thus reinforcing how offline practices become mirrored in online learning design. ⬡ Silos …VLEs as silos which sees colleges and universities ‘locking everything behind digital slabs of access controls and inaccessible online spaces’. 14
- 15. Minivans (Hill, 2015) and Buses (Downes, 2015) ⬡ Minivan is not considered to be the most exciting of transport mediums, offers a number of practical benefits that includes comfort, plenty of storage, and smooth rides - similar features that can be found in the average VLE. ⬡ VLE ‘is important and ubiquitous, but we all know we need better options’ … ‘everyone has them and needs them, but there’s a certain shame in having one in the driveway’. ⬡ Sees the VLE more as a bus rather than a minivan: ‘someone else is driving, it only travels on a pre- arranged route, the bus is often late but you still have to be on time because it won't wait if you miss it’. ⬡ Downes’ interpretation is perhaps even more restrictive than that of Hill in that it implies less control and even greater uniformity, in addition to inefficiencies and perhaps even inevitability. 15
- 16. Two broad Themes (1) somewhat limiting and as largely used as a repository for course materials, and (2) as having limitations but offering the potential for more expansive use towards enhanced learning opportunities. 16
- 17. Discussion 17 • Claims and Counter Claims • Usefulness of Metaphors – Of Their Time
- 18. References ⬡ Brown, M., Paewai, S. & Suddaby, G. (2010). The VLE as a Trojan Mouse: Policy, Politics and Pragmatism. Electronic Journal of e- Learning, 8(2), 63-72. Retrieved May 15, 2019 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/55183/. ⬡ Clarke, L. and Abbott, L. (2008) ‘Put posters over the glass bit on the door and disappear: tutor perspectives on the use of VLEs to support pre-service teachers’, Teaching in Higher Education, 13(2), pp. 169-181. Doi: 10.1080/13562510801923252 ⬡ Cosgrave, R. (2012, June 13). The VLE as Kenwood Chef. Retrieved March 16, 2019, from http://tertiary21.blogspot.com/2012/06/vle-as-kenwood-chef-ready.html ⬡ Dale, J. (2004, August 16). The seats are bolted to the floor. Retrieved April 26, 2019, from https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/johndale/entry/the_seats_are/ ⬡ Dobozy, E., & Pospisil, R. (2010). Exploring flexible and low-cost alternatives to face-to-face academic support. In J. Dalzeil, C. Alexander, & J. Krajka (Eds.), LAMS and Learning Design (pp. 81–100). Cyprus: University of Nicosia Press. ⬡ Dobozy, E., & Reynolds, P. (2010). From LMS to VLE or from supermarkets to airports: Classifying elearning platforms using metaphors. In Proceedings of the 5th International LAMS Conference (Vol. 201, pp. 92–103). ⬡ Downes, S. (2015, May 7). LMS Is The Minivan of Education (and other thoughts from #LILI15). Retrieved 26 April, 2019, from https://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=63849 ⬡ Groom, J., & Lamb, B. (2014). Reclaiming innovation. Educause Review, 49(3), 29–30. 18
- 19. References ⬡ Hill, P. (2015, May 7). LMS Is The Minivan of Education (and other thoughts from #LILI15). Retrieved 26 April, 2019, from https://mfeldstein.com/lms-is-the-minivan-of-education-and-other-thoughts-from-lili15/ ⬡ Mason, L. (2018). A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Educational Technology Research in the Social Studies. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 18(3), 538–555. ⬡ Robertson, A. (2010) ‘Using the University’s VLE to Provide Information Support for Midwifery Students at the University of Bedfordshire’, New Review of Academic Librarianship, 16(1), pp. 87–101. Doi: 10.1080/13614530903240569. ⬡ Stiles, M. (2007). Death of the VLE?: a challenge to a new orthodoxy. Serials: The Journal for the Serials Community, 20(1), pp. 31– 36. ⬡ Watters, A. (2014, September 5). Beyond the LMS. Retrieved April 30, 2019, from http://hackeducation.com/2014/09/05/beyond-the- lms-newcastle-university ⬡ Weller, M. (2007) The VLE/LMS Is Dead. The EdTechie. Available from: https://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2007/11/the-vlelms-is-d.html ⬡ Woodward, T. (2014, April 13). LMS Metaphors. Retrieved April 26, 2019, from http://bionicteaching.com/lms-metaphors/ 19
Notas del editor
- When tutors were asked to describe how the VLE supported their teaching, their responses emphasised communication and collaborative learning within online communities of practice. They spoke of how the use of the VLE provided the umbilical link back to the tutor, and how it promoted co-dependence between students within the course-based community right from the start of teaching practice:
- The first of these (the shopping centre or supermarket) is drawn from the work of Landon, Henderson and Poulin (2006) and is characterised as a foundational stage (‘come and grab’) of VLE usage: ‘mainly used by lecturers to deposit documents and manage online and blended learning, including tracking of online behaviour’ (2010, p. 96). The second metaphor (the school) comes from Dobozy and Pospisil (2010) and sees a greater level of user engagement (‘come and interact’). This sees the VLE used mainly for online or blended learning, enabling communication and collaboration among participants, with a greater focus on the learner and the use of learning objects and reusable content. The final metaphor chosen by the authors is proposed by Weller (2006) and is described by Dubozy and Reynolds as engaging at an experiential stage (‘come and be’). Seen as ‘VLE 2.0’, this third characterisation of the VLE enables total immersion and builds on such Web 2.0 principles as social software and reusable software, allowing for greater flexibility and customisation.
- University of Bedfordshire’s Virtual Learning Environment to develop a one-stop-shop for information resources and help in developing information skills for Midwifery students. The Academic Liaison Librarian wanted to create a resource for the Midwifery students that would meet as many of their needs as possible, not just sources of information but guidance on how to exploit them effectively, and to use them ethically. Another reason for putting everything in one place (a “one-stop-shop”) was to save these busy students time when looking for material relevant to their assignments.
- Robert Cosgrave’s (2012) ‘The VLE as a Kenwood Chef’ likens the VLE to an expensive food processor in that ‘they come with a lot of interesting looking blades and attachments, but most people use them only to make smoothies’. If they are simply used as remote content repositories, he asks, then why not drop the expensive VLE and use a simpler and cheaper content management system? He suggests, however, that if you do have an expensive food processor then you have access to those more advanced blades and attachments that can, potentially, be used at a later stage. In this sense Cosgrave suggests that VLEs could act as a ‘gateway drug for online learning’.
- Our next examination of VLE metaphors combines two from the same year (2014) as they convey a similar message. The first is taken from Audrey Watters’ well-known ‘Beyond the LMS (Beyond the VLE)’ post, in which she critiques the VLE as a segmented and ultimately closed online space, whereby ‘each course is a separate entity [...] hermetically sealed in a walled off online space, much like a walled off classroom’, thus reinforcing how offline practices become mirrored in online learning design. Watters argues that we should strive for greater openness with greater emphasis on networks and connections, rather than ‘building digital walls around students and content and courses’. In the same year and vein, an influential article appeared in the Educause Review from Jim Groom and Brian Lamb (2014), in which they describe VLEs as silos which sees colleges and universities ‘locking everything behind digital slabs of access controls and inaccessible online spaces’. The authors argue that such constructs are at odds with institutions’ ‘oft-stated values such as social engagement, public knowledge, and the mission of promoting enlightenment and critical inquiry in society’, which not only cuts off the institution (and its students) from the wider world but also but also limits the potential for courses within the VLE to interact with one another.
- Minivans and Buses Our penultimate VLE metaphor is proposed by Phil Hill (2015) and adopts a transportation analogy. Hill suggests that the VLE ‘is the minivan of education’ and argues that while the minivan is not considered to be the most exciting of transport mediums, it offers a number of practical benefits that includes comfort, plenty of storage, and smooth rides - similar features that can be found in the average VLE. He concludes that the VLE ‘is important and ubiquitous, but we all know we need better options’ and in this regard, reinforces the comparison between VLE and minivan: ‘everyone has them and needs them, but there’s a certain shame in having one in the driveway’. Continuing the transport comparison and in quick response to Hill’s minivan metaphor, Stephen Downes (2015) sees the VLE more as a bus rather than a minivan: ‘someone else is driving, it only travels on a pre-arranged route, the bus is often late but you still have to be on time because it won't wait if you miss it’. Downes’ interpretation is perhaps even more restrictive than that of Hill in that it implies less control and even greater uniformity, in addition to inefficiencies and perhaps even inevitability.
- When its comes to educational technology, and in particular VLEs, it is all too easy to be seduced by the promises, assertions and ‘shininess’ of online platforms. In fact, if anything characterises the debate about VLEs it is the various competing claims that are made about what they offer in terms of functionality and learning opportunities against the lived experience of many educators and students. Against this tangle of competing claims and counterclaims, we suggest that metaphors offer a useful way of conceptualising the relative merits and shortcomings in an easily digestible manner. An examination of the different metaphors highlighted in this paper suggest a high degree of commonality which might be condensed into affordances and functionality tempered with containment or constraint. Regardless of whether it is Dale’s ‘bolted down furniture’, Woodward’s ‘fast food franchise’, Watter’s ‘walls’, Lamb’s ‘silos’, Hill’s ‘minivan’ or Downes (2015) ‘bus’, they all suggest that VLEs do provide learning opportunities, but in a relatively limited manner and only within the parameters set out by the educational providers and the software developers. Lastly, it should be noted that metaphors are from and of their time. The minivan and bus metaphors were articulated in an era before Uber and before real acknowledgement of the crisis of climate change. The bus, as a sustainable public good, may have a lot going for it in retrospect.