Useful stuff from Gráinne Conole

I am reading through "Describing learning activities - Tools and resources to guide practice" by Gráinne Conole. The point is made that the shift is from focus on the content of learning (images, text, media etc. and how it is presented) to the focus on the social approaches involved in learning. I have pulled diferent parents out of the text to create the bulleted, levelled list below. The black text is mine.

Learning Design (as defined in the Introduction to this volume) specifies
the teaching and learning process, along with the conditions under which it occurs
and the activities performed by the teachers and learners in order to achieve the
required learning objectives.

The article also helped me to understand some key terms:

• digital assets – normally a single file (e.g. an image, video or audio clip),
sometimes called a ‘raw media asset’;
• information objects – a structured aggregation of digital assets, designed purely
to present information;
• learning activities – tasks involving interactions with information to attain a
specific learning outcome; - this is where we consider:

1. what the learners should know, or be able to do, after
   completing a learning activity
2. The pedagogy (learning and teaching approaches) - I believe this would influence the type of "mediating artefacts" used, as the tools or resources provided would be considered useful only within the approach being applied
   
3. The tasks undertaken. This specifies the type of task, the (teaching) techniques
   used to support the task, any associated tools and resources, the interaction
   and roles of those involved and the assessments associated with the learning
   activity. The tasks have a range in them too, which I have summarised:

• assimilative tasks - reading, viewing or listening
  

• information handling - gather and classify
  

• adaptive - modelling or simulation software
  

• communicative - such as pair dialogue group-based discussions
  

• productive - something is made

• experiential - practising or investigating
  
  

• learning design – structured sequences of information and activities to promote
learning.

The pedagogy and learning design parts are where I believe I concentrate on the Communities of Practice theory or approach, designing learning opportunities that are shared with others, performed in a real content, have impact on others/self and the learning can build on previous understandings (my nod to constructivism), while also being not too great a leap in ability required (read here 'Vygotsky').
I have inserted the video below as it describes building a community of practice - or interest - and is generic enough to be used by educators.
http://www.stepforward.co.nz
http://www.theoscarclub.org.nz
http://www.keakids.co.nz