At first glance, the meaning of the term "content" could not be more obvious. It is the stuff we share, study, watch, create and mashup on the Web. However, a closer look at content as substance, as educational, as opposed to form, and even --deposed or enthroned on the Web-- as king, raises many more questions. What is the ³educational² nature of content and how does it relate to its (re)usability? How does form (e.g. learning designs, management systems) relate to content? And what makes it valuable or valueless? This presentation taps into ideas of curriculum as an overall structure that both enables and limits the coherence of educational ³contents,² contexts and purposes. It looks at the issue of specificity and irreplaceability that is implied in the notion of content as substance and materiality -as something that is actually specific to a place and time, rather than ubiquitous and (theoretically) endlessly adaptable. Our point, in short, is to show that content is something to understand more fully before we leave it behind.

1. What is “content” and how
might we (not) get beyond it?
Norm Friesen
&
Irwin DeVries

2. Overview
• What is (educational) content?
• Examples: What do they show about the
learning in content and about its re-use?
• Possible ways of understanding learning or
education re: content [discussion; slides as
or if needed]

3. Content
"We learn anywhere, anytime, anyplace;
there are opportunities to learn all around us
everyday. We learn in the home, office, on
the road. Likewise, educational content can
be shaped to fit all kinds of useful delivery
media that is convenient, user-friendly, and
(most important) serves the educational
need of members without the content being
shortchanged or trivialized." Smith, J.(2001)

4. Common Perceptions and Complaints
Learning objects, OER, emerging pedagogies have
raised new awareness and questions about content
• Final vs. emergent • memorization & rote
• Consumed vs. created learning
• Conducive to teaching • Inert; unengaging
and learning as • Locked up in copyright
“transmission” and proprietary formats
• Reinforces instructivist • Owned vs shared
teaching habits • Driven by publishing
industry

5. Beyond the Reusability Paradox
“If a learning object is
useful in a particular
context, by definition it is
not reusable in a different
context. If a learning object
is reusable in many
contexts, it isn’t particularly
useful in any.” (D. Wiley, as
summarized by D’Arcy Norman)

6. But what is this “content”?
• The sum of qualities, notions, ideal
elements given in or composing a
conception; the substance or matter (of
cognition, or art, etc.) as opposed to
the form.
• The things contained or treated of in a
writing or document; the various
subdivisions of its subject matter.
• Form is general; content is specific.

7. What is (Educational) Content?
• It can be discussed generally only through
form: textbooks, video clips, writing, podcasts
• We have generally thought of education and
other issues in terms of forms (from Plato
onwards)
• Often authorship is not important
• Web and new forms reinforce this
• Try to counteract this through examples: this
textbook, this clip, this podcast

9. Euclid’s Elements
• A line is breadthless length.
• Rectilinear figures are those which
are contained by straight lines, trilateral figures
being those contained by three, quadrilateral
those contained by four, and multilateral those
contained by more than four straight lines.
• In isosceles triangles the angles at the base
equal one another, and, if the equal straight lines
are produced further, then the angles under the
base equal one another.

16. http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0014579305000104-gr1.jpg

17. http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/explodedviews/280z/exploded%20l28.gif

18. http://www.scienceclarified.com/everyday/images/scet_01_img0015.jpg

19. Thoughts about Examples
• Organization is emphasized; are about
organization
• Organization according to the specific subject
matter and desired emphasis
• Is progressive and cumulative in particular ways:
from basic to advanced, from fundamental to
secondary etc. … (outward from centre, top to
bottom)
• Method of progression; Engages reader or viewer
from:
– General to particular or particular to general

21. Recommendations re: Content
• Make connections among concepts explicit
• Explicitly highlight deep features
• Use contrasting and boundary cases to
highlight organizing features
• Expose students ’ knowledge
organizations
• Analyze tasks to identify the
most appropriate knowledge
organization

22. Not taking content for granted
Content in a c/x-MOOC world
E.g. c-MOOCs x-MOOCs
Supported by Need for
• Instructional videos • Adaptation
• Guides to MOOCs • Contextualization
• Syllabi • Currency
• Aggregations • Learning design
• Wrapups or
summaries

24. Text books are a ripoff…
• …but they’re more than just a ripoff
• "A textbook is not merely a compendium of knowledge.
Rather, it is a assemblage of knowledge organised for
educational purposes. Textbooks, therefore, are not
simply depositories of knowledge. Through their
chapters, headings. tables, illustrations, worked
examples, homework exercises, and so on, they mediate
the structure of knowledge on the one hand, and the
performance of teaching and learning on the other.“
Peter Ramus and the beginnings of modern schooling
http://www.onlineassessment.nu/onlineas_webb/contact_us/Umea/David/ramustex

25. Pedagogical Knowledge
Exhibits a number of characteristics distinguishing
it from scientific knowledge. As a rule it ...
•only looks at a part of the whole
•(radically) simplifies this knowledge
•integrates it into a logical-seeming context
•avoids contradictions and exceptions
•makes knowledge appealing by means of various
tools (slides, films, experiments, murals)
•is taught with maximum efficiency

26. Daniel Tröhler
“Pedagogical knowledge is derived from
scientific knowledge through such actions as
selection, condensation, composition,
didactical structuring and streamlining for
classroom instruction. Pedagogical knowledge
is meant to be obvious, unambiguous, precise,
ordered and interesting, and it is not supposed
to take a lot of time to learn. It assumes a
"dogmatic" character because it is primarily
viewed as an object of teaching.”

27. Daniel Tröhler, con’t
By contrast, scientific knowledge is based
on the assumption that knowledge is not so
much an object of teaching as that of
research. Knowledge is not a given, but is
constantly reconstructed, questioned and
examined to uncover its underlying
premises. In contrast to pedagogical
knowledge, advances are not logically
structured, but more dependent on
fundamental convictions as to how objects
are to be handled.

28. Concluding Thoughts & Suggestions
• A BIG gap between content in general and any
one example: “content” a dangerous word
• May be useful to bring “scientific” and
“pedagogical” knowledge into some kind of
balance: both “techniques” are needed
• Both stress connections between content, and
making these as clear as possible
• These connections depend on perspective
• Simplification / attractiveness / “type of logic”