{"id":5602,"date":"2016-09-22T13:39:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T13:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/?p=5602"},"modified":"2016-09-22T13:39:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T13:39:44","slug":"newlearners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/","title":{"rendered":"New academic year, new learners&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently read <a href=\"http:\/\/digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu\/ij-sotl\/vol8\/iss1\/4\" title=\"International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 8 1\" target=\"_blank\">an insightful piece from Charles D. Morrison<\/a>, which argues, among other things, for a clear distinction between &#8216;information&#8217; and knowledge&#8217; in educational discourse. Morrison, like many others, holds that while <em>information<\/em> may be transferred (e.g. through telling or lecturing), <em>knowledge<\/em> cannot &#8211; that is, information must be contextualised, applied, experienced in order to become knowledge. This will be a familiar point to anyone interested in effective pedagogy, but the article is worth a read, not least because it communicates clearly the responsibilities of this for the student as well as the tutor. It&#8217;s also a point that bears repeating at this time of year, as we consider the new cohorts of students who have already begun to walk in to our classrooms. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/30470905@N02\/5498265371\" title=\"Different Walks of Life\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c4.staticflickr.com\/6\/5020\/5498265371_3235100dd3_n.jpg\" align=\"right\" width=\"240\" alt=\"Different Walks of Life\"><\/a>Everyone, students and tutors alike, will bring something slightly different to the classroom. There will be differences in the prior knowledge and skills students have developed, but there may also be differences in the ways these are integrated into their experience &#8211; the preconceptions (and misconceptions) they have created in order to make new information make sense to them. This collection of intellectual baggage is what Phil Race refers to as <a href=\"http:\/\/phil-race.co.uk\/post-constructive-alignment\/\" title=\"Phil Race's blog: post-constructive alignment\" target=\"_blank\">&#8216;learning incomes&#8217;<\/a> &#8211; and it can really make a difference to how each student engages with new learning, even in the most carefully designed and structured learning activities. How then to ensure that each of these individuals can progress towards common intended outcomes?<\/p>\n<p>Race argues that the best way to do this is to ask them what they already know, using one of our favourite tools here in Learning Design, the humble post-it. In the piece linked above, he describes a simple exercise designed to collate students&#8217; thoughts on the most important thing they already know about a topic, and the biggest question they have. This kind of exercise is useful for helping teaching staff to identify knowledge gaps and misconceptions, but Race also points out another important gain: that &#8220;Learners are very relaxed about doing this, as \u2018not knowing\u2019 is being legitimised&#8221;. This can be particularly important for new students, who may lack confidence in their abilities, because it frames the classroom as a safe space for exploration, experimentation and failure (often a <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.innocentive.com\/2013\/10\/17\/5-examples-of-failure-that-resulted-in-innovation\" title=\"5 Examples of Failure that Resulted in Innovation\" target=\"_blank\">necessary precursor to success!<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re thinking about using a similar diagnostic activity with your new learners this term, you might also find <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facultyfocus.com\/articles\/instructional-design\/prior-knowledge-unexpected-obstacle-learning\/\" title=\"Prior Knowledge as an Unexpected Obstacle to Learning\" target=\"_blank\">this post from Janet G. Hudson<\/a> useful, as it includes a few more suggestions on how to gather data on common misunderstandings in your subject. Or, if you&#8217;re already using this type of activity, why not share your thoughts below on what has worked well for you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently read <a href=\"http:\/\/digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu\/ij-sotl\/vol8\/iss1\/4\" title=\"International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 8 1\" target=\"_blank\">an insightful piece from Charles D. Morrison<\/a>, which argues, among other things, for a clear distinction between &#8216;information&#8217; and knowledge&#8217; in educational discourse. Morrison, like many others, holds that while information may be transferred (e.g. through telling or lecturing), [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[110,112,113],"class_list":["post-5602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learning-design","tag-learner-experience","tag-learning-design","tag-learning-outcomes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New academic year, new learners... - Learning Technology Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New academic year, new learners... - Learning Technology Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I recently read an insightful piece from Charles D. Morrison, which argues, among other things, for a clear distinction between &#8216;information&#8217; and knowledge&#8217; in educational discourse. Morrison, like many others, holds that while information may be transferred (e.g. through telling or lecturing), [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Learning Technology Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-22T13:39:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/c4.staticflickr.com\/6\/5020\/5498265371_3235100dd3_n.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmusher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jmusher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/\",\"name\":\"New academic year, new learners... - Learning Technology Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/c4.staticflickr.com\/6\/5020\/5498265371_3235100dd3_n.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-22T13:39:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/#\/schema\/person\/9c0f47d1f032c51b099cd525daf76e24\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/c4.staticflickr.com\/6\/5020\/5498265371_3235100dd3_n.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/c4.staticflickr.com\/6\/5020\/5498265371_3235100dd3_n.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New academic year, new learners&#8230;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/\",\"name\":\"Learning Technology Blog\",\"description\":\"News and Updates from the Learning Technology Team\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/#\/schema\/person\/9c0f47d1f032c51b099cd525daf76e24\",\"name\":\"jmusher\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5a4397f27d50f1fe03802d8af53adf746f4bcf7f642f357c968340b106b6f350?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5a4397f27d50f1fe03802d8af53adf746f4bcf7f642f357c968340b106b6f350?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"jmusher\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/author\/jmusher\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New academic year, new learners... - Learning Technology Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/blogs.northampton.ac.uk\/learntech\/2016\/09\/22\/newlearners\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New academic year, new learners... - Learning Technology Blog","og_description":"I recently read an insightful piece from Charles D. 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