Design+and+Development

**//Pedagogical strategies //** The pedagogical strategy adopted for the learning activity is the Collabrative startegy. T‍he strategy encourages interaction among learners to maximise the learning. Collaborative learning is based on the idea that learning is a naturally social act in which the participants talk among themselves. Collaborative strategy is defined as an instructional strategy that encourages interaction between and among two or more learners to maximize their own and each others learning‍ (Dabbagh, 2003:36), (and) facilitate joint construction of knowledge through joint negotiation of alternatives through argumentation, debate and discussion.
 * Design and Development **

I‍t is through the talk that learning occurs."It involves a situation where participants work together to solve a problem. Collaborative learning is an instructional method in which students’ team together on an assignment. In this method, students can produce the individual parts of a larger assignment individually and then “assemble” the final work together, as a team . The use of student teams can be an especially effective teaching strategy for several reasons. First, it allows the instructor to support students in learning a valuable skill that employers continually rank as critical to workplace success: how to work together and support each other in learning and discovery. Second, becoming effective and productive team members allows students to develop their independent learning skills by working individually on a portion of a group project that makes them accountable not only to the instructor but also to team members. And finally, integrating teamwork into a course can result in adding structure to out-of-class time and increasing student accountability for their learning. Obviously, team-based learning is not appropriate for all content, but it can usually be adopted in some form in any course (Diaz, Brown & Salmons, 2010).  [] ‍ In the context of activity, the collaborative strategy was adopted to facilitate collaborative learning among the postgraduate students at Abadina Media Resource Centre. the strategy involved putting t‍he students into groups to work together on a given task and come up with a joint position.‍ The interaction between the learners would facilitate constructive argumentation and discussion. The postgraduate students were divided into four groups each of the groups were given specific themes to work on. The themes were drawn from the course content of Information Architecture. The group task is aimed at understanding the underlying principles behind information Architecture, Website designing and information interaction. It is expected that the students would work together to share ideas and views points on the principles behind Information Architecture, website designing and information interactions. Each group is expected to present a joint work which is to serve as the product of their collaborative work. The goal of activity is to ensure collaboration in learning among the students. Group tasks are set up in wikispaces to work on by members of groups. The students have earlier being given some texts to engage with after which they can now approach the group tasks. Each member of the group is to make his/her own contribution to the group tasks after which they are to come together to harmonise the group tasks and arrive at a joint position to be presented in the class. Dabbagh (2005:36) cited setting online group discussion areas around a topic or specific activity goal, or project, such as a case study, using a synchronous discussion forums, to promote collaboration and social negotiation, as an example of how collaboration and social negotiation can be enacted in e-learning contexts using learning technologies. This type of strategy was adopted to enable the students to work together to achieve meaningful learning in a collaborative form. The postgraduate students were divided into groups and assigned group activity. The group activity was designed to build a strong group interdependence that encourages members to help each other work towards a common objective. This is based on the believe that strong group interdependence would motivate the better-prepared students to help and encourage the members who are most likely not going to meet the goal and the less-prepared students are likely to work hard so as not to disappoint the group. As part of the collaborative learning strategy is the peer evaluation which provides avenue for the students to evaluate each other work. According to RIT (2011) peer evaluation as helping to build team skills as it permits students to reflect on their process and outcomes, and provides teachers with continous feedback. In the context of this activity, the group projects were evaluated by the students at class sessions where groups presented their work. The students were asked to criticise the work of their peers and providing positive feedback and suggestions for improvements.‍ [] **//Tools and Technology Adopted for the ‍Learning Activity‍ //** Wikispaces and Typewith.me were the two technologies/tools adopted for the online learning activity. Wikispaces were used for the collaborative group tasks while the typewith.me was used in the class to harness the comments of the students in the class. The wikispaces affords the students the opprotunity to work on the group tasks wherever they are without having to come down to the school. ‍Wikis are easy- to use web publishing tools that allow a group of users to collaboratively add and edit web content without any programming knowledge‍ (Shanks, 2008: 260). One major challenge in completing group tasks among the postgraduate students has been their busy schedules and different workplace demand. Wikispaces, as a tool for collaborative learning and writing provides a platform to bridge this gap. Wikispaces and type ‍witn‍.me tools were adopted to address the challenge of bringing members of groups together to work as on assigned group tasks. The choice of these tools is based on their affordances which‍ enable share-ability, read-ability, write-ability, accessibility, permission-ability, and combine-abilit‍y, among others (Bower, 2008). The wikispaces was adopted for the group assignments while the type with me was used to harness the students comments on the group presentations and activities. The URL for the actual learning activity is  http://amr720.wikispaces.com/

Bower, M. (2008). Affordance Analysis - matching learning tasks with learning technologies. //Education Media International//, 45 (1), 3-15. Diaz, V., Brown, M., and Salmons, J. (2010). Collaborative teaching and learning strategies. .EDUCAUSE. R. I. T. (20011). Collaborate learning: strategies for effective online collaboration .RIT Online Learning, Available at [|www.online.rit.edu/faculty/teaching-srategies/collaborative-learning/strategies.cfm] Shank, P. (2008). Web 2.0 and beyond: the changing need of learners, new tools and ways to learn. In S. Carliner and P. Shank [Eds]. The e-Learning handbook: past promises, present challenges San Francisco
 * References **


 * Design and Development**

//**Pedagogical strategies**// The pedagogical strategy adopted for the learning activity is the Collabrative startegy. The strategy encourages interaction among learners to maximise the learning. Collaborative learning is based on the idea that learning is a naturally social act in which the participants talk among themselves.Collaborative strategy is defined as an instructional strategy that encourages interaction between and among two or more learners to maximize their own and each others learning (Dabbagh, 2003:36), (and) facilitate joint construction of knowledge through joint negotiation of alternatives through argumentation, debate and discussion. I<range type="comment" id="587371">t is through the talk that learning occurs."It involves a situation where participants work together to solve a problem. Collaborative learning is an instructional method in which students team together on an assignment. In this method, students can produce the individual parts of a larger assignment individually and then “assemble” the final work together, as a team . The use of student teams can be an especially effective teaching strategy for several reasons. First, it allows the instructor to support students in learning a valuable skill that employers continually rank as critical to workplace success: how to work together and support each other in learning and discovery. Second, becoming effective and productive team members allows students to develop their independent learning skills by working individually on a portion of a group project that makes them accountable not only to the instructor but also to team members. And finally, integrating teamwork into a course can result in adding structure to out-of-class time and increasing student accountability for their learning. Obviously, team-based learning is not appropriate for all content, but it can usually be adopted in some form in any course (Diaz, Brown & Salmons, 2010). []

In the context of activity, the collaborative strategy was adopted to facilitate collaborative learning among the postgraduate students at Abadina Media Resource Centre. the strategy involved putting t<range type="comment" id="570595">he students into groups to work together on a given task and come up with a joint position. The interaction between the learners would facilitate constructive argumentation and discussion. The postgraduate students were divided into four groups each of the groups were given specific themes to work on. The themes were drawn from the course content of Information Architecture. The group tasks is aimed at understanding the underlying principles behind information Architecture, Website designing and information interaction. It is expected that the students would work together to share ideas and views points on the principles behind Information Architecture, website designing and information interactions. Each group is expected to present a joint work which is to serve as the product of their collaborative work. The goal of activity is to ensure collaboration in learning among the students. Group tasks are set up in wikispaces to work on by members of groups. The students have earlier being given some texts to engage with after which they can now approach the group tasks. Each member of the group is to make his/her own contribution to the group tasks after which they are to come together to harmonise the group tasks and arrive at a joint position to be presented in the class. Dabbagh (2005:36) cited setting online group discussion areas around a topic or specific activity goal, or project, such as a case study, using a synchronous discussion forums, to promote collaboration and social negotiation, as an example of how collaboration and social negotiation can be enacted in e-learning contexts using learning technologies. T<range type="comment" id="184548">his type of strategy was adopted to enable the students to work together to achieve meaningful learning in a collaborative form. The postgraduate students were divided into groups and assigned group activity. The group activity was designed to build a strong group interdependence that encourages members to help each other work towards a common objective. This is based on the believe that strong group interdependence would motivate the better-prepared students to help and encourage the members who are most likely not going to meet the goal and the less-prepared students are likely to work hard so as not to disappoint the group. As part of the collaborative learning strategy is the peer evaluation which provides avenue for the students to evaluate each other work. According to RIT (2011) peer evaluation as helping to build team skills as it permits students to reflect on their process and outcomes, and provides teachers with continous feedback. In the context of this activity, the group projects were evaluated by the students at class sessions where groups presented their work. The students were asked to criticise the work of their peers and providing positive feedback and suggestions for improvements. []

//**Tools and Technology Adopted for the <range type="comment" id="12439">Learning Activity **// Wikispaces and Typewith.me were the two technologies/tools adopted for the online learning activity. Wikispaces were used for the collaborative group tasks while the typewith.me was used in the class to harness the comments of the students in the class. The wikispaces affords the students the opprotunity to work on the group tasks wherever they are without having to come down to the school. <range type="comment" id="642350">Wikis are easy- to use web publishing tools that allow a group of users to collaboratively add and edit web content without any programming knowledge (Shanks, 2008: 260). One major challenge in completing group tasks among the postgraduate students has been their busy schedules and different workplace demand. Wikispaces, as a tool for collaborative learning and writing provides a platform to bridge this gap. Wikispaces and type <range type="comment" id="790688">witn .me tools were adopted to address the challenge of bringing members of groups together to work as on assigned group tasks. The choice of these tools is based on their affordances which<range type="comment" id="378181"> enable share-ability, read-ability, write-ability, accessibility, permission-ability, and combine-abilit y, among others (Bower, 2008). The wikispaces was adopted for the group assignments while the type with me was used to harness the students comments on the group presentations and activities. The URL for the actual learning activity is http://amr720.wikispaces.com/


 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">References **

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Bower, M. (2008). Affordance Analysis - matching learning tasks with learning technologies. //Education Media International//, 45 (1), 3-15.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Diaz, V., Brown, M., and Salmons, J. (2010). Collaborative teaching and learning strategies. .EDUCAUSE.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">R. I. T. (20011). Collaborate learning: strategies for effective online collaboration .RIT Online Learning, Available at [|www.online.rit.edu/faculty/teaching-srategies/collaborative-learning/strategies.cfm]

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Shank, P. (2008). Web 2.0 and beyond: the changing need of learners, new tools and ways to learn. In S. Carliner and P. Shank [Eds]. The e-Learning handbook: past promises, present challenges San Francisco