Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Li Zhong Zhang
one, in that the former provides the macro aspects while the pedagogical considerations form the
micro aspect of a course design.
5.2 Instructional design and learning technologies
“…. the field of instructional design and technology is hugely affected by the enormous
changes that have been brought about largely through the pervasiveness of networked
computers. ” (by Reiser and Dempsey, 2005, p.279).
As mentioned in the previous section, the emergence of ICT not only changes the delivery and
reception of instruction and information, it also exerts a widespread effect as a medium of instruction
and learning for enhanced interactions and interactivity as well as in creating and sustaining learning
communities.
The development in instructional design will continue to be influenced and impacted by emerging
technologies. An evidence of a technology-induced paradigm shift that is currently underway in the
field of instructional design is the distributed cognition in response to the emerging team-based,
collaborative and distributed applications and systems. Thus, learning spaces are becoming more
complex and dynamic, which are defined by the tools, the interface and interactivity, and sharing
workspaces provided by more sophisticated and intelligent technologies and systems within an
integrated environment (e.g, Table 2, under the column of Emerging technologies). An integrated
environment provides additional benefits to learners and instructors in that they need not have to go
to different systems and tools for the learning tasks. Furthermore, being an integrated system, the
data is centrally stored in the same database for quick search and retrieval as well as for information
sharing.
5.3 Pedagogy and learning technologies
Traditionally emphasis has been placed on technologies without regard to teaching and learning
aspects and therefore technologies often fail to create the learning impact (Oliver & Herrington, 2003;
Zhang, 2006). It is important to avoid this pitfall by ensuring that the adoption of innovative teaching is
educationally sound.
Technologies alone cannot provide solutions to teaching and learning problems and needs. Neither
can technologies themselves transform teaching, learning and assessment. Transformation comes
from re-structuring or re-designing of existing teaching and learning practice with incorporation of
technologies. As the deployment of technologies in teaching and learning goes beyond acquisition
and set-up of technical infrastructure, the integration of technologies should not be technically-driven
(Jones, Ferreday and Hodgson, 2008).
Pedagogical-driven approach begins with considering teaching and learning problems, needs and
requirements. The course designer will first decide on the learning paradigms, instructive or
constructive or a mix of both with one predominant over the other. Learning technologies will be relied
on when there is a need to accomplish the desired learning outcomes. For instance, if the
pedagogical underpinning is for creating a learning environment for supporting social construction of
knowledge, then social communicative and constructive tools (see examples in Table 2) could be
deployed to meet the needs in group communication and collaboration. The designer can then
examine an array of such tools and systems, e.g, groupware, discussion board, chat, or virtual
classroom, to find the best ‘fit’.
Working with technological change, pedagogical-driven approach is a dynamic process in which the
course designer will need from time to time to adopt improved or newly developed functions of
learning technologies to enhance course content presentations and learning tasks. Therefore,
pedagogical enhancement can be achieved by taking advantage of technological change and
integrating this changing dimension into the process of teaching and learning.
6. Design implications and challenges
The design implications & challenges in creating technology-based blended learning environments in
support of contemporary educational and technological trends and developments are to be presented
under the respective sub-headings.
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