Professional Documents
Culture Documents
E2 WP6
Executive summary
The document analyses the various forms of an e-Learning didactic model and methods. Then,
the paper describes the phases of design/planning of the e-content of a module of training.
The contents development for e-training is one of the main problems which affect the elearning research. The multiplicity of e-didactic typologies (stand-alone e-learning, assisted elearning, e-cooperative learning, blended learning, info-learning, small-learning) and the
specificity of the related didactic methodologies build the development of contents supporting
the training-learning process very articulated, defining the need to customize specific
planning and development models for the E2 LOs contents and presentation, and specific
professional skills necessary for this development.
Tables of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 2
A theoretical topic of Didactic Model: a brief summary from the literature ....................................... 3
The Didactic Strategies ............................................................................................................................................ 4
The designing of the e-Content of a Module .................................................................................................... 6
Model, Methods and Didactic Strategies ........................................................................................................... 7
References & Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Annex 1 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Introduction
Taking into account the model, method and strategy that should drive the development of the
Learning Objects (LOs) we can thus begin from the initial suggestions that emerged in the
kick-off meeting, which consider the training environment as expressed in the image below.
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The trainee, or our target group(s), is placed in a milieu in which it is important to consider
the different possibilities of learning that are available to the subject. These possibilities
consist in the object of learning, the process of learning and the subject of learning situated in
a learning context such as vocational training.
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In specific, the didactic direction centred on mono-cognition, leads the future trainees to deal
with existing knowledge. His attention is predominantly directed to the product, it is made of
notions and abilities that are necessary for the individual to manage specific problems. The
problems that have to face are on the one hand the quality of the knowledge suggested, which
cannot be encyclopaedic knowledge and must be fully updated in line with the evolution of
the argument chosen for the LOs and the target (as specified below, in this document); on the
other hand, the quality of didactic mediation that must assure to every student the effective
possibility to have access to knowledge and must be able to use teaching individualization
strategies able to motivate, respect times and styles of individual and differentiate in the
various situations and for various and differentiate publishing company (according to their
interests and needs).
The didactic direction that tries to assure the achievement of meta-cognitive competences
interprets essentially education as a critical construction of culture of the individual student
and the group, with particular attention to the process. The process is the organization of
conscious and transferable learning tools. New electronic tools allowing you to obtain
information so easily, can surely risk not taking account of meta-cognitive competences,
because of the huge quantity of ready for use knowledge of the net that risks to make the
meta-cognitive competences seeming useless. All the new electronic tools have these valences
to a great extent because are tools of mediation between individual and knowledge, between
individual and material, cultural and social realities which work on the base of rules that the
more you know and dominate them the more useful are. The technological problem is
planning and using a didactic which makes use of computer applications in a critical way
avoiding the decline that result from a simple use of the machine that make the machine to
work alone, if you dont guide it.
Finally, the fanta-cognitive direction characterizes a training experience centred on the
subject, on the use of his experiences as starting point and tool to rearrange originally
knowledge and ways to use them in daily life. So individual experiences are both the starting
and, at the same time, arrival point of training experience. The problem is to enrich them,
structure them, open them to novelties through an action of awareness directed to the subject
that make him conscious of his limits and of his resources.
In this direction is surely possible to use the new tools towards experiences that dont aim to
isolate the subject in the self-referential world of his feelings, but aim to stimulate the subject
towards an ability to see, feel and express that is at the same time more original and creative
and more able to understand the feelings of other people. Belongs to this scenery the use of
hardware and software that can fully exploit the ability of individual to extend the aesthetic
dimension: the applications of computer that can be used as perceptive prosthesis, the
programs to create sounds and images, the endless possibilities of virtual reality, the places of
simulation in and out of game contexts.
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by the opportunity to define three main typologies of LOs that, according to the model
presented previously, are centred on: (1) the object of learning ; (2) the process of learning,
(3) the subject of learning.
The typology of LO centred on the object of learning belongs to the logics of the so called
descending career. His planning results from specific contents of discipline (or from the field
of knowledge) that is object of learning. His educational objective is of informativereproductive kind because it hopes to give to the E2 trainees units of knowledge (beyond
their specific nature: can be simple or complex professional competences or abilities...) that
have to be learnt and reproduced in a certain way in respect to the given suggestion. The
reference model in a conventional educational environment is that of didactic Unity. Its most
rigorous implementation modality is surely that of Mastery Learning, that grants the highest
level of individualization.
The typology of LO centred on the process of learning gives importance to the logics of a
constructive approach of learning. It goes from the meta-cognitive perspective of the
development of ability, to the continuous activation of the ways of the so-called scientific
thought: that are ways of construction of knowledge that use specific methodologies of
research (or critical forms of taking, formalizing and solving a problem). In other words they
encourage in a systematic way the use of tools of direct research (attitudes, methods,
techniques) that open to the possibility of conceptualisation, generalization, transferability of
produced knowledge and of modalities that have been used to produce them.
The typology of LO centred on motivations and emotions of the learning subject tries to face
a problem that traditionally is not taken into account in the traditional training environment,
but all along is considered fundamental for educative research: the importance of
motivational and emotional aspects in the determination of effectiveness (in terms of quality
and quantity) of the learning path. This kind of LO tries to activate abilities that arent easily
measurable with objectifying procedures, because are scarcely predefined and strongly linked
to the field of individuality. The didactic modalities that are considered more important are
those of cultural animations: strategies that encourage the student to make reflections that go
beyond the level of objective competences and professional abilities to arrive to the level of
personal meaning of that particular knowledge for the learning subject. These reflections
form a group of determined competences that anticipates and goes with the learning process
in all its forms.
As we have seen, these three typologies of LO come from different interpretations of learning
and as a consequence have different educational objectives. Inside a challenging didactic
model the problem to face is not decide which is the best typology in absolute, but define in
the most accurate way the specificity of the individual typology in order to plan the realities of
course in which are integrated the LOs of the three types according to proportions and
differed successions that take account of other possible criterions:
disciplinary specificities of learning object
stated purposes of the course of study
age and competences of participants
features of the context.
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Underlying idea of the problematic model is that is not possible to have a good training quality
in experiences that of course dont have any LO of one of the three typologies.
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used as a unitary strategy for the entire training path. Here are some examples of Didactic
Strategy (for each we indicate one possible sequence of Didactic Methods):
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Annex 1
Here we give a short description of each Method in order to introduce a kind of glossary of
didactic methodologies:
Frontal Lecture
This is the so-called professorial where an educator illustrates the concepts and knowledge.
Obviously this explanation can happen by using communicative and relational dynamics and
methodologies that can more or less reinforce the didactic feature of the lecture itself. But at
any rate the Frontal Lecture represents a direct communication of the contents of the
knowledge to be transferred.
Autonomous Learning
This is an autonomous process, performed by the Learner, to acquire knowledge. It is study
at home and it consists of an action of the Learner that, by using the didactic materials at his
disposal or found autonomously (in a library, in a bookshop, on the internet etc.), acquires the
knowledge which is the object of the learning process.
Exercising
This is an activity that usually follows a face-to face Lecture and integrates the Autonomous
Learning of the Learner through the application. Often the Exercising activity immediately
follows an activity of Autonomous Learning. Sometimes, it follows an activity of Autonomous
Learning and of Applicative Exercising, a new face-to face Lecture representing a kind of
reinforcement of what has been previously explained and then learned and applied by the
Learner.
Case Study
The Case Study is a real problem (usually wide-ranging and complex) chosen in the field of
the subject/s of study and through which a solution is also found (both real and applied as
well). The Case Study is used to allow the Learner to analyse deeply and with the help of the
Trainer, the solution found for a complex problem by using the tools that the Learner is
learning.
Simulation/Dramatizing
Simulation is one of the most interesting methods to foster active learning. Many types of
simulation for learning exist: the Role Games, Decision-making Games, Virtual Laboratories. In
all these cases, what is used is a technological environment, usually computer-based, but not
only, where a certain operative context is simulated (in the case of the informatics the
simulation can, through the use of virtual reality, even have sophisticated effects).
Furthermore, some Special Laboratories can represent environments, where complex
processes or events are simulated. In these contexts the Learner can work by using the tools
that the environment offers. Obviously there are also simulations occurring without the use of
technology. Dramatizing is a particular kind of simulation in which the Learners find
themselves in an operative context where they are asked to play a role, a function etc.
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the possibility of failure, stimulate in the Learner the need for learning how to solve the
problem. This prepares the ground for the subsequent Frontal Lecture (called
Systematization) that provides him with the tools needed to solve problem and consolidates
the learning process.
Problem Posing
This method consists of asking the Learners to define solvable problems in a determinate
context with a specific acquired knowledge. It has been observed that these kinds of activities
strongly consolidate what has been learned since it leads the Learners to reason, we could
say, on the contrary, by using the knowledge not as something to be acquired but as
something to reason about.
Training-on-the-Job
This Method is applied by placing the Learner in a real operative (working) context, where he
has to operate by applying what he has learned during the processes of Formal Education.
This method is also defined Stage.
Check
The Check is applied both during a Teaching-Learning Path and at its conclusion; it can have
many shapes (Interviews, Essays, Open Problems, Tests, etc..).
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