Practical Design Patterns for Teaching and Learning
Rotterdam (NL), July 2014 - Harvey Mellar, an honorary member of Learning Agency Network, and his colleagues Yishay Mor, Steven Warburton, and Niall Winters are the editors of a recently published book entitled "Practical Design Patterns for Teaching and Learning with Technology". The book consists of four major sections collected under the themes of learner-centered design, learning communities, social media and learner interaction in social spaces, and assessment and feedback.
A set of design patterns around each theme, together with design narratives from which they were derived and scenarios in which these patterns are applied to new contexts, are brought together in order to provide a detailed examination of the "learning-design" dimension of educational technology rather than focusing solely on "technology". The book describes "the participatory patterns workshop methodology", a technique for collecting and disseminating design knowledge that’s based on the interaction among a series of collaborative reflection workshops (a design-narratives workshop, a design-patterns workshop, and a design-scenarios workshop).
Eventually, diverse learning-design patterns are developed that are firmly grounded in both theory and practice. The Learning Agency Network congratulates all editors and authors of the book for their valued contributions.
Harvey Mellar says, "This book has been several years in development and contains contributions from some forty authors from many countries. We hope that the publication of this book will further support the development of an approach that conceives of teaching as a design-based activity and sees teachers as designers. The pedagogic design patterns in the book are the starting points for pattern languages, which we hope readers will continue to develop and share."
