Unpacking Authentic learning using a Class Activity on the Creation of Apps Repository

Authentic Learning

Starting from the antithesis of authentic learning paints a background for what authentic learning is.

What Authentic learning is not

  • It’s devoid of interactions between the teacher and the learner. There is no connection between the teacher and the learner’s conceptual knowledge/ context.
  • It’s devoid of developing higher order thinking skills.
  • It’s merely abstract or theoretical without any practical or experiential learning.
  • It doesn’t consider the context.
  • When a topic or content is not related to the real-world.
  • It’s not empathic.
  • The teacher or students are after grades more than long-term learning.
  • It’s not flexible or adaptable
  • When students do not actually do, but rather are just taught
  • When students are not provided with practical skills that they will need in the real world. 

What is Authentic Learning?

Students learn better if they can relate content to the real world. Jan Herrignton describes in detail  what authentic learning is and the 9 elements that characterise authentic learning, in the series of videos available on Authentic Learning.The introductory video is shown below.



Authentic Learning in Collaborative Content Creation

In this post, authentic learning is described and exemplified by the Apps4lockdown activity conducted during this course (EDN4503: learning and teaching with EdTech). The activity is described as follows; “As students and learners stay at home during the lockdown, increasingly, parents are becoming 'educators' and 'facilitators' of learning. While there are many apps out there that can assist parents in this new, unprecedented role, it is not easy to know where to find useful apps. The purpose of this blog is to assist parents to become effective 'educators' (Apps4lockdown) (Ng'ambi, 2020). This activity was analysed using the 9-elements of authentic learning (Herrington et al. 2010).

9 elements of authentic learning (AL)

  1. Element 1 (Authentic context): authentic learning has real-world relevance. This provides a physical or virtual environment that reflects the way the knowledge will be used in real life. Scenario-based learning environment is created. It provides space where ideas can be explored at length in the context of real situations. The pathway students take through the learning activity is flexible. The apps4lockdown blog can be used in different spaces. Real-life context is being of lockdown during the COVID-19 crisis is being addressed. The activity matches the real-world tasks of professionals because the parents are adopting new roles as teachers. We are finding a solution to a situation we are part of.
  2. Element 2 (Authentic task): AL must have relevance such that knowledge is produced and not reproduced. It must be constructed such that it must be broad enough for students to be able to know how they’ll carry out the task on their own without providing too much help. You don’t make decisions for the learner. The task must be completed over a longer period. Of all the elements. It’s the task that matters most.  In the exemplar used here, knowledge was produced and shared. We were able to create a repository that can be used by parents.  It required the learners to define sub-tasks (creating individual blogs). It became more complex as we proceeded into the sub-tasks. We moved from simplicity to complexity, so at the beginning there was well-defined tasks and later on there were ill-defined tasks.
  3. Element 3 (Access to expert performance): students are exposed to expert thinking and modelling of the processes. The learning environment allows access to other learners at various stages of the expertise. Expert thinking & modelling was provided by the course convener (Prof Ng'ambi). The learners had access to one another via Edmodo, WhatsApp & Zoom. A number of the learners were conversant with how Blogger works, thus aiding the rest.
  4. Element 4 (Multiple perspectives): in a diverse group where students come from different backgrounds (contexts), playing different roles (parents, teachers etc.), there will be multiple perspectives. There’s a sociocultural influence.  These affect interpretation of concepts. In the apps4lockdown activity, there was freedom to access different resources. The blog became a resource tool to list other Apps. We were able to play different roles as researchers, writers and creators. 
  5. Element 5 (Collaboration): an environment for collaborative construction of knowledge is created. Joint problem solving and social support are provided. Students are arranged into teams. Collaboration is working together to create something new in support of a shared vision. In the apps4lockdown activity, we could view other people’s posts. We worked on the same task and in the same space. The multiple perspectives brought synergy. We worked together towards a common goal.  This led to an aggregation of Apps an individual would not have come up with given the time & individual context.
  6. Element 6 (Reflection): Learners must be able to make choices on approach to use for a task. Reflection takes place at different stages of the task; prior, during and after the completion of a section or the whole activity. It’s a two-way process. There are continuous engagement and feedback. Students work collaboratively and have a discussion and social reflection. The knowledgeable other emanates from the collective effort. In the apps4lockdown activity, we thought of Apps we wanted to list before sending the email. There was a prior reflection before posting, we reflected during the activity as we viewed other people’s posts.
  7. Element 7 (Articulation): there must be a public presentation of argument to defend ideas. Creation of a polished product that requires presentation of thought and argument in writing. The Blog started with nothing on it and ended up with a pool of resources based on the expression of our varied knowledge. Articulation made the knowledge explicit. There was a public presentation of argument as the community can easily access the repository.
  8. Element 8 (Scaffolding and Coaching): transmission of knowledge is avoided. Interactions are encouraged between the learner and the teacher. The teacher mediates interactions among the learners and between the learners and contents. Learner-learner interactions took place through peer collaboration as indicated above. The iterative nature of the activity also facilitated scaffolding and coaching. Some of the more knowledgeable peers can also act as coaches. During the activity, we were provided support, but we weren’t helped with creating our individual blogs (sub-task).
  9. Element 9 (Authentic assessment):  where a task is integrated with the task rather than having separate testing. A polished product is assessed. The repository created in https://apps4lockdown.blogspot.com demonstrates this.

Reference

Herrington, J., Reeves, T.C and  Oliver, R. (2010). How real does authentic e-learning need to be? In A guide to authentic e-learning. Routledge London and New York.

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