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Mercer, Ralph
(2017).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000c63e
Abstract
The goal of this dissertation is to establish the views and support of experts in the field of learning technologies and of potential users on the concept of using a Learning Identity Framework to positively influence learning identity development. As a secondary objective, the research attempts to define and describe the components of the learning informatics framework.
Conceptually the Learning Identity Framework will be a technology-supported platform (upon which other technologies and applications can be utilized) that will put in the hands of lifelong learners a process to record daily events, allow for critical self-examination of what they needed to know, what worked, what didn’t work, and to make that personal data usable and actionable at an individual level.
The theoretical premise for the Learning Identity Framework is based on a sociocultural and interpretivist context, with a level of advocacy brought through the use of self-narration as one of the more common and effective means of self-representing an Individuals identity as a means of self-reflection. Self-narration in this dissertation is represented as an autobiographical story created by memories of the past, edited by present experiences and used to foreshadow a learner’s beliefs in their ability to learn in the future.
The analysis of existing learning frameworks, interviews, and workshop data, support findings that proposed a framework based on core personal informatics attributes. The model developed and described supports a habitual method to record, question and to recall what was heard, read or written for reflection, with the intention to affect changes to learner identity in a positive manner.
The concepts, components and structure of the Learning Informatics Framework proposed in this research lay a strong foundation for the deployment of the framework as means for future research to better understand the role of identity in lifelong learning and, more importantly, to empower learners at a personal level.