Part of the December 2020 STEM Resources Digital Calendar!
Many teachers are feeling overwhelmed with the sudden transition to digital lessons and online teaching. The learning theories and frameworks below provide useful tips on how to design online instruction and plan digital lessons to help students thrive. Rather than subscribing to one theory, I find that learning about each offers me great insight into what motivates and engages online and digital learners. I also have discovered tips to support all students and diversify my curriculum to meet their various learning needs. The theories below will also transform your lessons so that students are thinking critically, problem solving, creating, and collaborating with their use of technology.
?Discover more ways to integrate technology effectively by taking one of my fully accredited online courses or get one of my books!
4 Essential Elements for Effective Distance Learning
Currently, I teach the online course, Online Learning: Best Practices to Leverage the Power of Distance Learning for graduate and continuing education credit. I often reference the ideas and research by McIsaac and Gunawardena in the Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology. According to McIsaac and Gunawardena (2001), we must consider the following four concepts essential to effective distance learning for our students, which are transactional distance, learner control, social context, and interaction. My presentation, Caring for Students Virtually, which you can view below, illustrates the four essential concepts and offers practical ways to implement them.
Digital Learning Theories and Frameworks
- Connectivism by George Siemens and Stephen Downes
- What is RAT? by developer, Dr. Joan Hughes
- SAMR: A Brief Introduction by Dr. Ruben Puentedura
- SAMR and Digital Blooms resources by Kathy Schrock
- Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy by Andrew Churches
- The Peeragogy Handbook with founder Howard Rheingold
- The TPACK Framework
- Online Collaborative Learning Theory by Linda Harasim
- Design Thinking resources from David Kelly, IDEO Founder
Further Reading and Exploration
The following resources provide more insight on various digital learning theories and frameworks, including the ones mentioned in this post:
- The Hybrid Teacher (2020) by Emma Pass was written specifically to meet the needs of teachers during this pandemic and is a digital book you can download for any donation you set.
- Teaching in a Digital Age (2nd Edition): Guidelines for designing teaching and learning by A.W. Tony Bates (Free digital book)
- Learning Theories for the Digital Age slide presentation by Steve Wheeler
- Hybrid Pedagogy is an open-access journal of learning, teaching, and technology
- The Learning Theories website is maintained by teachers and has over 100+ easy-to-read summaries of learning theories
- Theories and Frameworks for Online Education: Seeking an Integrated Model by Anthony G. Picciano
- McIsaac, M. S., & Gunawardena, C. N. (2001). Distance Education. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology. Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Online article retrieved from http://members.aect.org/edtech/ed1/13/index.html
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Digital Advent Calendar
Just click on the day and find a post full of free STEM resources and ideas ☃️If you enjoy these resources, then take one of my fully accredited continuing education and graduate online courses or check out my book, Hacking Digital Learning Strategies with EdTech Missions!