TEL-lingit like IT is

We don't just store bits of knowledge as stacked Lego bricks. Instead, we assimilate new knowledge within the stream of what we already know. In turn, the newly assimilated knowledge influences the stream of how we interpret new knowledge. In Making it stick , Brown, Roediger III and McDaniel define learning as "acquiring knowledge and skills and having them readily available from memory so [one] can make sense of future problems and opportunities" (2014, p.2). Learning, then, is a process of assimilation and extension. Sort of like a smudge.  The process of learning is often described in terms of a developing schemata   (Wikipedia article again highly recommended!) whereby what we already know both determines and changes as the result of what we learn. Such development might be equated with transformative learning , whereby an education doesn't just shape what we know; it also fundamentally changes our view of the world. It is here that the cognitive sciences ...

In 2001 I wrote Teaching for learning , a self-published eBook considering good practice in resource-based learning (RBL) design. I had just finished my Open University MAODE, and was inspired by the readings related to how the internet might reshape distance education. The book received good reviews [ one ], [ two ]... and, reflecting some 15 years later, its principles still seem contemporary (unlike my dress code at the time) and relevant to TEL. Some of the examples and suggestions are now passe, such as digitising and editing raw tape footage onto a CD-ROM(!) to accompany a printed workbook... but, hey, Moore's Law spread over a 15 year time-frame was bound to change the context! Here's a free link to the book, you're welcome to a copy: Teaching for learning PDF . I'm now a wee bit embarrassed by the 'best practice' stuff, so let's pretend the book was concerned with what was 'good', So, the elements of the good practice in RBL model from th...