Page 52 - TLU magazine - The Way to The Top

52
TALLINN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE / NO. 14 / SPRING 2020
what does
TECHNOLOGYOFFER
TOTHELEARNER?
The aim of the Centre for Educational Technology at the Institute of Digital Technologies is to find methodological and didactic approaches on how to support learning even more through technology.
Educational technology methods, learning environments and digital tools have been a part of learning and teaching in Estonia for the last 20 years. Initially extensively used e-learning (e-õpe) became blended learning (kombineeri- tud õppimine), concepts such as learning in a technology-rich society and learning and teach- ing practices supported by technology are now preferably used.
The first learning management systems were created by a research team led by Mart Laan- pere and Hans Põldoja back in the mid-2000s in order to support teachers with the distribu- tion of materials and students with submitting independent work or group work.
The next turning point in the Centre for Educational Technology was personal learning environments enriched with social media to support self-managing learners, opportunities to support the learner and the teacher in a dis- tributed digital learning environment. Impor- tant keywords are competency-based learning, assessment of digital literacy and maturity, informal learning technologies in the work- place, learning signs, playful learning, learning outside the classroom, etc. Important leaders here have been Kai Pata and Terje Väljataga.
The purpose of project LearnMx, led by Terje Väljataga, Mart Laanpere and David Lamas, was to create the concept of the
e-textbook and the role of the learner in this.
A taxonomy which illustrates how technology- enhanced classroom learning activities can be redesigned in ways that activate students and leads them to a more sophisticated learning experience was developed. Instead of acquiring
easily visualised learning content, the students should expand the materials, creating learning content for themselves, their companions or even teachers.
During the DigiÕppeVaramu project, we made digital tasks available. This way, the educational materials offer broader and more productive possibilities than a textbook.
The Centre for Educational Technology has worked closely with the research team of proj- ect CEITER led by Tobias Ley. There have been collective contributions made to the develop- ment of the EDUlabs model as well as to the development of the learning analytics toolbox.
Future activities of the research team will be influenced by, among other things, the need for different technologies to communicate and exchange data with each other and the need for the teacher to get relevant information from one place as easily as possible. The second goal is to offer the students a personalised learning experienced based on their interests, capability and performance.
Kairit Tammets, in collaboration with the research team of the Centre for Educational Technology