by Nick Eastmond
February 2002
David Berg Wins ETRD Award
Q1: What 2-3 key experiences in
your background led you to develop
your current theory?
Interesting that you present Learning
Without Frontiers as a theory.
I think of it as an ongoing discussion, a concept in development. It is
based on the idea that learning is a process which is not always
completely
predictable. More often than not, learning is unintentional, the result
of unplanned circumstances.
While I should see myself as the
product of a University which is very
much rooted in the Instructional Design tradition (University of
Twente,
the Netherlands), I have always felt that learning is not a process
which
can be designed from beginning to the end in all cases. As a student,
studying
the literature, reading the theories of instructionaldesign and the
theories
on learning, I did often find, in those theories, confirmation of this
idea.
So, to answer your question in
retrospect, I should mention the experience
of my education in Enschede. It provided the foundation for my
intellectual
understanding of learning as a very multi-dimensional process, of which
some aspects are under control of the instructional designer, but many
are not.
Especially my experiences with the
World Health Organization in Amman,
Jordan and with UNESCO in Paris gave me the hands-on experience which
confirmed
this idea, and which gave me the opportunity to put learning without
frontiers
into practice.
In Jordan I was involved in the design
and development of a comprehensive
manual for environmental health workers in Palestinian refugee camps in
the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Due to travel
restrictions,
I was not able to know the environments in which the manual was to be
used,
and we had to deal with complex and varied circumstances (e.g., nearly
illiterate workers in camps that have existed for nearly 50 years in
crowded
Amman; different political and organizational structures in the
different
camps). In addition, the content to be covered was complex, ranging
from
how to deal with leaking taps, to recognizing signs of epidemics,
finding
breeding places for flies and knowing how to count how many people live
in a small place. We in the environmental health office were forced to
make decisions without all the required information available, and it
made
me aware in a big way how difficult it can be to control the
circumstances
in which people learn things. I was required to take a LWF
approach
avant la lettre in allowing a certain level of uncertainty to be
present
in the process.
One experience, while with UNESCO,
also shaped my thinking. It is actually
described in the article as one of the cases: the teacher trainers in
Zimbabwe.
In contrast to the project in the Middle East, we from the start
deliberately
underdesigned the learning environment. Merely providing computers and
Internet connectivity, and some triggering workshops, we allowed the
small
group of teacher trainers to develop their own learning environment. We
started the project about 4-5 years ago. When I see how things have
developed,
I know that such an approach can work perfectly well.
Q2: How have you been involved with
UNESCO in developing it?
I worked in the Learning Without
Frontiers team In UNESCO for two years.
Apart from the project in Zimbabwe and a number of other activities, I
was responsible for the LWF website which played an important role in
promoting
the discussion around the LWF concept.
Q3: What led to your collaboration
with Jan Visser?
When the opportunity arose to join the
Learning Without Frontiers team
in Paris, I did not have to think very long. An open minded director,
in
the person of Jan, and a challenging mandate for the LWF team were just
two factors which made the choice easy.
Q4: What events have transpired
since you wrote the article?
How would those affect your present position on these matters?
I left UNESCO to teach in University
for a year. Since then, I have
taken up assignments as an independent consultant based in the
Netherlands.
One experience which fitted perfectly well in the LWF thinking was my
work
as project coordinator with the Amsterdam Faculty of Education last
year
(the expedition towards a more dynamic concept of curriculum has been
presented
at various conferences as well as at AECT). This teacher training
school has given students the responsibility for constructing their own
learning experience towards becoming a competent teacher, extensively
using
the possibilities of ICTs in the form of an online Portfolio system as
well as explicitly stimulating students to look for learning
opportunities
outside the school. Last June, the first results became visible when
freshmen
students had to prove their competence to a team of external assessors
using their Portfolio. The stories I have heard until now are very
promising:
students find it a motivating way to work and become much more aware of
the fact that learning is a process one can actively shape into a
challenging,
relevant and positive experience.
Q5: What trends do you see on the
horizon that our international
readers should be aware of?
A. When it comes to media, ICT, ... I
believe that the communication
and information devices which we use will become more and more
invisible.
Not merely because they become smaller and smarter, but mostly because
we will not have to struggle so much with them anymore.
B. When it comes to learning, ... the
main challenge for us, instructional
designers, will be to let go of our need for control of the learning
environments
we create, in particular, trying to avoid the idea that we can or
should
preconceive all the choices people will want to make in a learning
environment.
Q6: What additional thoughts would
you like to add?
Understanding challenge B, above, is a
precondition for trend A.
Q7: What questions would you ask of
our readers? What challenge(s)
would you like to pass along to them?
During the last AECT conference in
Long Beach, we held a session to
explore which questions the instructional design field should ask to
further
develop learning Without Frontiers. The contributions to this meeting
made
me realize that something in our being is yearning to be recognized:
the
need for recognition, the need for relevant and positive experiences.
And
maybe, without wanting to become too moralistic, the need for a safe
environment
(love and respect) and recognition of passion.
Many of the learning stories (see also
the Learning Development Institute
web site) indicate these factors to be of importance for true learning
to take place. My challenge to the reader is to reflect on a learning
experience
that really meant something for him or her. What were the
discriminating
factors that made this learning experience meaningful? How can you, as
an instructional designer, create learning opportunities like that one?
