introduction

=Introduction=

My name is Gerald Henzinger and I am from Austria, Europe. The last three years I was working at the Catholic University of Mozambique in Beira. Before this I was working as a software developer in Austria. From 2006 to 2008 I took a class at the [|www.fotoschule.at], an institution for photographic art and design, which took me 4 semesters. The institution www.fotoschule.at is located in Vienna and teaches photography. The course has a duration of one year and can be extended to a second year. There is no official degree, because of legal restrictions of the photography business in Austria. The theory classes are in the evening and the practical workshops are on weekends.

On the theory classes, Image analysis played a crucial role and were done collaboratively. Image analysis or discussion helps the student to (1) get a feedback and (2) have the capability to look at images more critically as a photographer. Every student had to bring a maximum of five pictures and during the evening these pictures were analysed. I and some other students weren´t happy, how this process took place. On the one hand, image analysis depended very much on the personal view of the tutor and on the other hand, the discussion wasn´t guided very much.

This portfolio is about a learning task in photographic composition and critical thinking about how to analyse photographic images. Therefore the learning task challenges the learner in collaborative and critical picture analysis. The learner has to reflect to a given picture on given criteria and then he has to respond to other students reflections. This means, the learner has to perform at least three forum posts per unit.

The reason for writing this portfolio is mainly a task in the course ICT in Education. The online task was implemented and tested two weeks ago. and will be described in this e-portfolio.

Overall design
This e-portfolio is following the principles of Integrative Learning Design (ILDF) by Dabbagh and Bannan-Ritland (Dabbagh et al, 2005, p.112). The ILDF is a design principle for online learning task design with three main elements: Exploration, Enactment and Evaluation. In the Exploration phase the portfolio reflects on the Context of the students and the institution, the content and the students and the involved tutors and lecturers´ preknowledge and motivation. In the Enactment phase, the portfolio reflects on the ICT affordances and the pedagogy behind it. In the Enactment phase, the portfolio reflects on the Evaluation of the learning task. There is no formative assessment of the learner. The evaluation is just a summative evaluation of the learning task itself.

The decision to follow the ILDF is the focus in the multiple perspectives on the design and usage centered design. It also taps on the online learning developers experiences and intuitive understandings and beliefs about the learners learning (Dabbagh, Bannan-Ritland, p. 113). The learning task is based on a learning task, which was already performed and is well established in the institution. By using the ILDF principles, the implementation of the online learning task takes advantage of the explicit knowledge of the design.

Online learning design model
The basic type of learning at [|www.fotoschule.at] is mostly individual. Collaborative learning happens, but just informal, when students do their own projects. This learning style is not always appropriate, especially when it comes to image production and discussion. So, the learning task online image analysis is better, when it is done through a group discussion. The emphasis on collaboration of knowledge and the not clearly defined outcome of the learning task are the key issues of the choice of the online learning design model. Merrils Pebble in the Pond model for instructional design (Merrill, 2002) describes an Instructional Design Model, where the center of learning is a problem. In the case of image analysis, the problem can be considered the inefficiency of the discussion and the lack of collaboration. The choice of Pebble in the ponds is based on the fact, that in the current online learning via image analysis is an instructional problem, which is the center of the innovation. The Pebble in the pond is the most accurate learning model in terms of solving learning problems. Pebble in the pond knows five ripples (Fig. 1.): Problem, Analysis, Strategy, Design and Production. The problem phase is divided in two phases, first the initial problem and the progression of the problem. In our learning task the initial problem was the inefficiency, the progression of the problem is the loss of students engagement to the image discussion.

Fig. 1. Pebble in the Pond Instructional Development (Merrill, 2002, p. 40)

The analysis ripple is meant to identify all knowledge components required to complete the task and the strategy ripple is about the instructional strategy. Figure 2 shows a strategy of reducing guidance during the process of instruction. This strategy will be used in this task, because our learner at the institution looks for more instruction at the beginning of the course, but the more he engages with the picture analysis, the more he gains capability in resolving a task.

Fig.2. Instructional strategy (Merrill, 2002,p.42)

Link to the prototype
Online image analysis For access the course, you need to register as a user of freemoodle, which can be done here. A tutorial video for register to the platform and enroll into the course is there (German).