Last week the course "Pedagogies for Flexible Learning supported by Technology" started again. The course is part of the specialisation Curriculum Instruction and Media Applications (CIMA) of the master program Educational Science and Technology (EST) of the University of Twente in the Netherlands. I have been teaching this course since 2004. The course evolved from a more or less theoretical course about education supported by technology (technology? course management systems!) to a course in which the students and I actively discuss the opportunities of a very diverse spectrum of technologies that can support education in such a way that it supports different kinds of flexibility and different pedagogical approaches.
And yes, as of 2009 TPACK is part of this course. TPACK is part of the content that I teach, TPACK is part of the final assignment that the students have to do and I try to design my course in such a way that my own TPACK can be put into practice. And.. I do believe that my own TPACK developed because of this.
I don't start with TPACK right away.. The first lecture is about Flexibility. After a short discussion about possible flexibility options within a course, within a program such as CIMA, within a university and within the (educational) world, the emphasis is on flexibility as described by Betty Collis and Jef Moonen in their book "Flexible learning in a digital world". Collis and Moonen stress that flexible learning is not just distance learning, but that there are many aspects in education that can be flexible, such as time, content, entry requirements, instructional approach, delivery and logistics. Furthermore they state that flexible learning is a movement away from the situation in which key decisions about learning are made in advance by the instructor or institution, toward a situation where the learner has a range of options from which he or she can choose.
Last year I posted two other messages on this topic (which can be found here and here, with a reaction of Jef Moonen on the second post). And just like last year I find myself still struggling with flexibility.. Flexibility is great and it offers lots of very nice opportunities for teachers and for students, but it could also bring (too?) many demands on teachers and students. I am not going to repeat the arguments I made last year, but what I do stress in my course and in other presentations that I give: flexibility is wonderful, as long as your own flexibility is not stretched too far..
In the upcoming weeks I will be blogging about the course (next week's topic: Pedagogies), and just like previous years my students will be blogging too. I will put the links to the students' blogs on the right side of this page, so you can follow them too!
Reference
Collis, B., & Moonen, J. (2001, second printing 2002). Flexible learning in a digital world: Experiences and expectations. London: Kogan Page.
