October 2007 Volume 10 Number 4 - Educational Technology ...

Figure 1. Design Theories in context (Inspired by Markus et al (2002) and Hardless (2005)).
The next section briefly presents IS design theories for learning. This is followed by a section that outlines the
fundamental concepts of Genre Theory. In section four the framework for techno-pedagogical genres is presented
together with three illustrating examples. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relationship between
intentional design and actual educational practice.
IS Design Theory for Learning
There is a growing body of research addressing various aspects of online learning design with focus on i.e. student
centered learning (Uskov, 2004), reusability of learning resources (Uskov, 2004; Wills et al., 2002; Aroyo &
Dicheva, 2004) team approach for iterative re-design and maintenance on educational on-line resources (Sims &
Jones, 2002) strategies to enhance student motivation, confidence and control (Astleitner & Hufnagl, 2003), problem
based learning (Slough et al., 2004) and quality assurance (Bohl et al., 2002).
According to Herrington and Herrington (2006), based on a paper by Herrington and Oliver (1995), online learning
environments can and should use situated learning as an approach to design. The elements that should be
incorporated into the design in order to achieve what Herrington and Herrington (2006) refer to as authentic learning
are authentic context, authentic activities, access to expert performances, multiple roles & perspectives,
collaboration, reflection, articulation, coaching & scaffolding and lastly authentic assessment. The context is
authentic when it is all-embracing and provides the purpose for learning, simply providing examples from real-world
situations is consequently not enough. The tasks and activities the students perform should be ill-defined but still
with real-world relevance and be completed over a sustained period of time, rather than many short and disconnected
examples. Access to expert performances is achieved by giving the students a model of how a real practitioner
behaves in a real situation, e.g. case-based learning or video showing expert performance. Students should be
encouraged to explore multiple roles & perspectives’, providing one “correct” view is not false but inadequate.
Collaboration needs to be designed to engage higher-order thinking so the collaboration between learners requires
them to predict and hypothesize, and then suggest a solution. Along the same line is reflection upon a broad base of
knowledge supposed to be encouraged. The environment should also ensure that the learners work and discuss in
groups, present their findings in order for them to articulate, negotiate and defend their knowledge. An authentic
learning environment should accommodate a coaching & scaffolding role for the teacher and not just a didactic role
telling students what they need to know. The students can also assume a coaching & scaffolding role if a
collaborative environment is provided. Authentic assessment needs to be integrated with the learning activity. It does
not necessarily have to be done by conventional methods such as examination and essays, but can be in the form of
statistics of the learner’s path through multimedia programs, diagnosis or reflection and self-assessment. (Herrington
& Herrington, 2006)
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