At the start of week 5, we look at the concept of abundance vs. scarcity of resources – how does that link to teaching? While Weller doesn’t dwell on it, it’s clear that we have moved from a situation of a relatively limited set of resources that students could have access to (a few books in the library, a few more if you can track them down), to today, when students have access to a vast range of materials; some of which are more useful than others. In order to make use of them, we have to look at newer approaches to teaching. He covers a range of approaches, not all explicitly requiring technology to support them, but rather they’re approaches that can enable staff / students to make good use of that wealth of information.
He covers:
- constructivism
- connectivism
- problem based learning
- resource based learning
- Communities of practice.
- MOOCs
Do you feel that you have used any of these approaches in your teaching?
Do you have any other comments about this week’s activities?
