TOWARDS A PEDAGOGY OF ONLINE CONSTRUCTIONIST LEARNING

For nearly a decade, my colleagues and I at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology have played a leading role in designing online learning environments for post-graduate courses intended for mid-career professionals. These successful programs, notably the Educational Technology EdD and Online Master of Arts in Educational Technology, incorporate progressive teaching practices and rely on Socratic dialogue, peer mentoring, collaboration and access to primary resources. The primary difference between the Pepperdine approach and others is our embrace of constructionism, the notion that knowledge is constructed through the active engagement of a learner and shared within an active community of practice. All theory presented in courses is expected to be useful in the life or workplace of each student since knowledge in use is an important tenet of constructionism. Our courses enforce an expectation of collaboration, peerreview and making thinking public. Student diversity is supported by the sharing of resources and requests for clarification by fellow students. The educational experience is framed by an ongoing conversation and exhibitions of student work rather than based on the delivery of content. This paper will also explore specific pedagogical and curricular strategies employed in a recent Technology and Learning Masters-level course.