A Double-Loop Learning Model for User-Involved Implementation of Learning Platforms (LMS) in Schools

Given the rapid and ubiquitous adoption of learning platforms across educational systems, an urgent need for implementation strategies for the platforms has arisen. This article proposes and examines a model for user-involved implementation that supports the development of innovative and situated learning designs subject to standardised technological constraints. By 2018, all public schools in Denmark are required to have implemented a digital learning platform that satisfies a requirements specification produced by Local Government Denmark, the association of municipalities in Denmark. The Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science has launched a research project involving 14 public schools in order to generate knowledge on how to best support the implementation of the platform. The empirical data for this article stem from a sub-project addressing this effort. Methodologically, this sub-project takes its cue from Design-Based Research. An intervention has been designed that consists of so-called 'future workshops', design workshops and micro-tests in order to facilitate design experiments conducted by the participants from the public schools. Observations have been made on the overall intervention design and the testing of the experiments. Interviews have been conducted with the participating teachers and administrators before, during and after the experiments. The data have been analysed qualitatively, inspired by grounded theory. Using theory on the production and sharing of design knowledge in the form of 'design narratives', 'design patterns' and 'design scenarios', the article proposes a double-loop implementation model that integrates the participants' analyses of their existing experiences with technology with their proposals for the future use of the platform. In the article, we propose an answer to why a platform subject to specific, nationally standardised requirements are adopted differently across similar schools. Our answer hinges on the connection between technological constraints and the schools' different levels of access to design patterns for the meaningful use of the technology, various levels of technology literacy, the teachers' imaginative capacity for developing design scenarios, the existing discourses surrounding technology, and changes introduced into the school ecology.