tools for planning

At the start of the weeks, Conole in the study material, expressed the need for there to be a better understanding of the design process. The activities over the last two weeks have all been about this. 'Learning design' is not just an OU approach. Each context has it's own approach and tools, ;language and pedagogy and the different tools we have looked at can be used in different ways by the different practitioners. Learning design is a "complex, messy and creative process" as Conole suggests, and the approach varies on a number of things, including where in the lifecycle of design you begin.

Yannis Dimitriadis in his interview with Pettit said that learning design should support practitioners in a real context, and that resources are about trying to capture the design process. He also points out that we need 'structure for success'. That, people really won't, on the whole, learn for themselves.

Compendium LD. A visual design tool. The activity we were given was for us to think about one of the activities we have already undertaken and to use the tool to design the activity. The software is fairly easy to use, although not necessarily initiative to start with. It would have been nice to see some designs to start with. Some interesting learning points to come out of this activity, besides the fact that half the group couldn't download the software. As already mentioned, different people came from different viewpoints in how to use this, and how to visually display things. A very useful tool for the 'visual' learners, and those who like mind maps (I hate mind maps, like tables!) This however, proves the point of learning design being messy!

Cloudworks. "Social networking for learning design". Another community based resource from the OU, built on the general principles of social media. Interestingly, most of us also found this quite messy. Although, like most things it takes time to move around and figure things out, we felt that it was not necessarily useful to everyone.  Personally I preferred educause.

With community based resources, you need to be a part of that community, otherwise you feel like you are nosing around someone else front room. I belong to a number of similar forums and closed communities, where resources and discussions are shared with like minded practitioners. So the learning point from this is , that there needs to be enough activity, but also that it needs to be relevant for the particular practitioner.

Pedagogy planners.  London Pedgaogy planner and phoebe. These are more tools for the micro planning. Both of these projects seem to have ended, but both again, give simple tools to enable teachers to plan their learning.