[wpspoiler name=”Instructional Philosophy” ]Educational Foundation[/wpspoiler] This site is a dissertation research project. The study participants agree to use a “Mobile Device” (Smartphone, Phablet or Tablet) when interacting in, and with the GitShed CMS, Facebook CoP Page and with other members of the free “Mobile Device Based Learning Environment” (MDBLE). Here is a video from the “GitShed User Guide”.
Combining, Community of Practice (CoP) learning theory with a game based instructional design module and a “Flip Classroom Instruction method” adapted for mobile device technologies, creates a new Mobile Device Based Learning Environment (MDBLE) concept. Participants are asked to only use Internet enabled Media Players, Smartphones, Phablets, and Tablets to learn and teach guitar.
Conceptual Framework: The conceptual framework has environmental and instructional components. The instructional framework is a synthesis of learning theories and design principles while the environmental framework is focused on the MDBLE.
Environment: The environmental framework consists of a Course Management System (CMS) portal, linked to a social networking community and participant’s video capable mobile devices (Media Players, Smartphones, Phablets, and Tablets). In addition to the researcher’s concept for the MDBLE, information from Bruce Tognazzini’s, “First Principles of Interaction Design”. In the article, he states that his principles are fundamental to the design and implementation of effective interfaces, whether for traditional GUI environments, the web, or mobile devices. (Tognazzini, 2003). Tognazzini’s principles are being used to strengthen the human interaction design of the GitShed.com CMS site.
Instruction: The instructional framework of the MDBLE is Constructivist and incorporates, Connectivism, the use of Flipped Classroom Instruction and Game Infused Education principles in a CoP. Wenger in his book, “Communities of Practice Learning, Meaning, and Identity” uses the following statement from Piaget and Papert, when defining Constructivist Theory: Constructivist theories focus on the processes by which learners build their own mental structures when interacting with an environment (Piaget 1954; Papert 1980). “Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories” (Siemens, 2005).
In this researcher designed online education model, the Flipped Instruction principle is modified for users of mobile devices. The introduction to “Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day” by Bergmann and Sams provides the context for the Flipped Classroom Instruction principal: “It started with a simple observation: students need their teachers present to answer questions or to provide help if they get stuck on an assignment; they don’t need their teachers present to listen to a lecture or review content.”(Bergmann, 2012)
James Paul Gee’s “What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy” suggests 36 principles for consideration when developing learning environments. Etienne Wegner et al., in their book, “Promoting and Assessing Value Creation in Communities of Practice” the authors suggest 7 design principles for creating a sense of “aliveness”(Wenger, McDermott & Snyder 2002).