Intelligent Tutoring (I.T.) Systems….

A “tutor” is defined by Encarta as 1, a teacher who instructs… 2, a low ranking U.S. university teacher (below the rank of instructor), and 3, an academic responsible for teaching.  Oddly, I find no mention of a machine or of a computer in the definition. Intelligent Tutoring is a system – an approach to teaching that relies on computer programing to form and guide interaction with a student; it certainly is not an academic. But could it fulfill the role of teacher?

One thing that Professor Brady mentioned in his podcast really struck home with me: Teaching is a relationship – instruction is an environment.  When I pondered this I immediately recalled all of the great teachers I had interacted with in grade school over the years, and how they stimulated my mind and tried to find new ways of explaining concepts until we all finally “got it”.  Oftentimes my motivation came from wanting the approval of my teacher. There was most definitely a relationship there – a very human connection characterized by encouragement, support, compassion, intervention.  Somehow I don’t think that an IBM, an Apple, an Acer, or even Hewlett Packard will ever be able to provide that.

So do I think that I.T. systems will ever replace a human instructor?  I would certainly hope not, as that takes us to that very bleak future Orwell warned us of in his work 1984, or Aldous Huxley’s work, Brave New World. Still, could I.T. be the answer to support learning for some students?  There seem to be two main avenues of concern: 1, the limitations of programming or the logic and rules behind the program, and 2, understanding the nature of learning – cognitive functions such to achieve learning. If we consider Vygotsky’s contributions to learning theories, and advocate social constructionism as a viable approach to learning, we endorse the need for social interaction, as knowledge is constructed when individuals exchange information, perception and understanding.  When I was young, I was a “bookworm” – I spent all of my free time reading, soon well beyond my “age level”.  My “interaction” with each author (insert teacher!) wasn’t totally one sided. I received their messages, learned their vocabulary, reflected on the experiences and dialogue as it was presented, and constructed new knowledge as a result.

In that sense, one can learn via inanimate or mechanical means. A novel, however, is rich in social context. It evokes imagery, shares values and biases, provokes an emotion response. Can an I.T. do that? It would seem that the University of Pittsburgh is moving in that direction with their research (to learn more visit http://www.isp.pitt.edu/research/educational-technology-group ).  They are looking onto an approach based on “case-based reasoning systems”.  Rather than using the strict logic which might well define the domains of mathematics or chemistry, this approach could be used in less rigorous disciplines. Case studies are an effective tool for applying concepts and developing new insights, and they can be relevant in many instructional areas.  U of P is seeking to develop “models for case-based argumentation; bootstrapping case-based development by using annotated case summaries and integrating background knowledge; and studying how cases can bridge the gap between abstract rules and real-life problem situations.”

Case studies could introduce that all important social exchange, they could “contextualize” the concepts and meanings so that the student could use them in knowledge construction.  Still, I.T. systems as a whole have other shortcomings. As noted in the wiki on Intelligent Tutoring posted at Wikipedia, “pedagogy of immediate feedback and hint sequences that are built in to make the system “intelligent”. This pedagogy is criticized for its failure to develop deep learning in students”.  The learner needs to feel some cognitive “tension” in the learning process, there needs to be enough challenge to motivate the learner to reach into the recesses of their mind and draw inferences, thus constructing new knowledge. Feedback is a necessary reinforcement for learning a lesson “correctly”, however if hints are too readily available, there is no tension, and therefore no deep learning.  As I.T. systems go forward, they will need to incorporate the logic and rules of the subject matter, a form of social interaction and context, and also a means of better gauging the student’s frame of mind.

In researching this topic, I ran across Dr. Nish Sonwalker (Sc.D., MIT).  He is an advocate for Brain-based Adaptive learning systems.  This approach to I.T.  is not domain specific and offers a more holistic approach to learning.  Feedback is presented by way of different learning strategies, permitting access to different learning frameworks.  The adaptive model uses statistical inference to determine the performance trajectory of the student so that the system can react by selecting the teaching strategy that will work best for that particular student. And because this approach is not domain specific, it can be as effective with poetry as with mathematics.

Dr. Sonwalker has several videos available at YouTube; I provide his description and a link to one of them below.  On the surface it appears that brain-based adaptive approaches to tutoring might overcome the limitations of other systems noted above.  I feel that there is and will continue to be a place for I.T. systems, as a means of augmenting the learning experience for those who struggle in other instructional environments. But it is the richness of exchange that comes from social interaction that develops lasting and meaningful understanding. As we become more global and deal with cultural and economic influences that affect all individuals regardless of their location, it is vital that there be a means to share experiences and perceptions that color our knowledge construction.  For this reason, learning needs to take place beyond the instructional environment, it needs to include relationships.

 

What is the Difference between Intelligent Tutors and Adaptive Learning Systems?
Uploaded on Dec 2, 2011

In this video segment Dr. Nish Sonwalkar (Sc.D., MIT) explains the difference between intelligent tutors and the adaptive learning systems.

The intelligent tutors were created in early 1980, at the time when artificial intelligence was in fashion. The AI was based on rule based systems where certain rules were created based on the expert knowledge to provide feedback in real time. So the tutors normally were very domain specific.

For example math tutors where fed with a knowledge representation for the domain of math with expert rules that were fired when a learner was doing a mathematical task. Based on the answers of a given task subsequent scenario were presented. Each scenario steps led to certain rules that provided led to inference by the intelligent tutor to provide certain feedback or practice test.

By repeated task and feedback intelligent tutors were able to provide reasonable response to each mistake made by the used in their understanding of the mathematical concept. While tutors worked well for a specific domain that was deterministic in nature they failed in areas where there were no correct deterministic answers. Because, there were no if-then-else rules that you could fire in an area like interpretation of poetry.

The Adaptive Learning Systems on the other had represent knowledge in distinct cognitive pathways such as apprentice, incidental, inductive deductive and discovery — providing same content in a different contextual framework thereby providing significant cognitive opportunity to learn. Also in the education adaptive learning systems the feedback is given in a different learning pathway to provide another perspective on the same problem.

Therefore, the an authentic adaptive learning systems is not domain specific and can provide better learning for both scientific disciplines with deterministic answers to domains where the answers are more based interpretation style and there no correct answer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGwibPdHS8Y

Educational Simulations

Educational: giving knowledge, instruction, or information (Encarta)

Simulations: reproduction of the essential features of something, e.g. as an aid to study or training (Encarta)

Ahhh, simulations.  As Dr. Brady noted, all APPs are a simulation of something.  Some will remember when DOS was required to operate your computer. Windows developed a graphic user interface, which made operating a computer simple for the masses. The “desktop” is the first obvious simulation. File folders in which to save documents is another.  Simulations can make the incomprehensible and complex translatable and easier to understand.

I was fortunate enough to take Dr. Denny Lester’s course on Computer Simulations.  Of course, there is much theory behind the design and development of a simulation; it’s actually quite difficult to create an experience that simplifies the reality.  Simulations can and do serve a valuable purpose in education: flight simulator permits the pilot to become used to instrumentation and controls without the stress of concern over crashing the plane on takeoff or landing.   Military simulations allow for practice in weapons use and attack strategies without involving real life casualties. Other simulations allow you to get a feel for dealing with difficult employees.  What they all have in common is that the simulation is a response driven activity that changes according to the inputs of the person participating in it. It is user driven and open ended; there is immediate feedback for the learner. According to Oblinger, learning-by-doing is the most effective way to learn.  Authentic learning requires “real-world, complex problems…(it) uses role-playing exercises, problem-based activities, (and) case studies”.  This is what makes simulations so appropriate in supporting authentic learning.

Simulations do not suffer from the same negative “perception” of worth and value as “games”.  This may be the result of so many “serious” simulations out there and their history of use by very serious groups: NASA, the military, scientific labs, and various industries.  This is not to say that some simulations aren’t games, or vice versa. What sets them apart? Marc Prensky, in his essay “Simulations – Are they Games?”, notes that “a simulation allows you to experience something, but once you experience it, it can become boring. To become more like games, “they need all the additional structural elements we have discussed — fun, play, rules, a goal, winning, and competition”.

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Simulations-Are%20They%20Games.pdf

Keeping in mind the purpose of the serious simulations mentioned above, do these simulations offer fun?  Perhaps, to a select group. Do they offer play? Yes. Rules, yes. Goal, yes. Winning and competition? Here I would say yes, if the loser/winner is the sim player against himself, and the competition is a personal showdown against the simulation itself.  As Whitehouse noted in Web-Enables Simulations, however, the desire to win the game can defeat the learning process. With some paraphrasing, “…participants focus on the mechanics of the game rather than on the underlying principles the sim tries to teach….participants often find it more efficient to look for the underlying algorithm of the sim rather than learn the concepts the sim seeks to demonstrate.”  Yes, this is a shortfall, but is it so different from the traditional classroom where a student studies the rubric to determine exactly what he needs to game in order to succeed (get an A), or the gamer at a casino who counts cards?

While taking Dr. Lester’s class I was introduced to some popular sims, including Roller Coaster Tycoon. You can get a free demo of version 3 at:

http://www.rollercoastertycoon.com/us/index.php

Do not hesitate to download free previous versions for a try. When I “tested” RCT two years ago, the point was to design/develop an amusement park that would turn a profit. So decisions you made as to the type of attractions and vendors and food booths could make or break you. Also the park design – if you mess up with the queue designs, your “customers” can’t get into the attraction, and walk in endless circles outside. A lot has changed in two years – reading about RCT 3, I find: “RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is completely updated and redesigned to take the series to all-new heights. Featuring overhauled 3D graphics and the exclusive new Coaster Cam, you can now see your park from any angle and ride the coasters you build. From street level to blimp, see your park pulse with fun and excitement like never before.”  Guess this is in keeping with Prensky’s avoidance of boredom.

I did try Stella as an approach to writing a simulation, but the class length simply did not allow enough time to understand the design, principles, and mechanics of sim design as well as learning to use outside software to translate the design to reality.  For those who might be interested, I’ve included a link to the sim mock up I created for class:

533- Gardening Simulation Final Presentation

Second Life.  Ok, 2L is included in the topic of simulations. I understand the why – it simulates a real environment, the activities and surroundings simulate a real world; I just don’t agree that this is apples to apples when discussing flight simulator, or OPEQ or OTIS as described by Whitehouse.  An immersive environment such as 2L on its own is not an educational simulation. Without the right framework, 2L is nothing more than a game.  In my Simulation class, much of the theory and application was from the viewpoint of Clark Aldrich.

Clark has some worthwhile ideas, many of which appear in this article:

FieldGuidetoSimulations

The guest speaker from last week’s class, Francisco Garcia, called simulations “representational environments.” So yes, any representational environment can then qualify as a simulation. But here we are focusing on educational applications.  Remember the definitions provided at the start of this blog post? Educational: giving knowledge, instruction, or information (Encarta).  Without structure, without design, without objectives and application and reflection, 2L cannot qualify as an educational simulation.  It does qualify as entertainment, and perhaps more when one considers the marketing side of 2L.  A glorified virtual mall, perhaps?

 

Educational Gaming

I had the pleasure to hear a presentation on gaming that was offered in another class by presenter Francisco Garcia.  He referenced a term created by Prensky, author of Digital Game-Based Learning (2001): “stealth learning”.  This describes the experience of the gamer who is so caught up in their game goals that they don’t even realize that they are learning. Players become so immersed that time flies by; the learning experience is so engaging that it become “easy” to learn.  The entertainment value of a games approach engages the player, so that “fun” characterizes the experience.  An engaged mind leads to better memory, and emotion along with stimulated senses help encode the material that is learned.

I’ve never become addicted to game playing, unlike many of my coworkers who can be found on their breaks tapping away on their smart phones. Still, I have enjoyed them I find Microsoft’s solitaire to be very relaxing (and this is an interesting aside, they developed the game to teach people how to use their mouse. So the game began with an educational purpose in mind, and then became a mainstay by virtue of the entertainment it provided. Maybe I shouldn’t say mainstay – Microsoft stopped deploying solitaire with their recent upgrades).  I have also enjoyed minesweeper, and when I had a blackberry, brick breaker. What I liked most about brick breaker was that you could keep moving up to higher levels, so the challenges changed as you played. I always felt a sense of accomplishment when I broke through to a new level. Some people enjoy the competitiveness of high score and are challenged to outperform others. Scores never motivated me unless I was seeking to beat my own previous level.

According to Mr. Garcia, educational games are effective because 1, learning is contextual; 2, the learner is in the center of the action, and 3, they evoke situational cognition.  Games support a constructivist approach to learning by being inquiry based, discovery based, and interactive.  Games also provide an opportunity to practice skills.  When I asked him what the biggest challenge was to creating “educational” games, he indicated that many of the platforms make it difficult to import content, and that it takes time as well as the ability to learn how to use the tools necessary to develop them.  So in a sense, the challenge to bring educational gaming to the fore is similar to the challenge we experienced getting traditional education to an on-line setting.  It requires time, an already scarce commodity for many of us, as well as a new skill set which must be developed.  What is encouraging is that there is interest in and a desire to drive educational gaming to new levels.

Mr. Garcia concluded his presentation with some discussion of Bloom’s taxonomy.  He believes that games address the levels of knowledge, comprehension, and application; the challenge, or Holy Grail, is to develop them to support analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Speaking of Bloom’s technology, did you know that it has been rewritten to fit with 21^st century technology?

From http://mrskingsbioweb.com/technology.htm

And to take the visual a step further, Bloom and Web 2.0:

Instead of concluding with synthesis and evaluation, the taxonomy now moves from analyzing to evaluation to creating. I kind of like this approach, because it demonstrates that the previous steps ultimately lead to new knowledge, as “created” by the collaborative efforts of many.

Digital Video and Education

In this week’s exploration, we are considering digital video as a teaching tool.  BUT, we were asked to see what’s out there OTHER THAN You Tube.  After several searches and visiting many sites for the purpose of examining educational video, I found candidates, but not the rich variety and choice that might be found on You Tube, or its associate sites such as Teacher Tube or You Tube EDU. There is no doubt that You Tube has become the premier resource for all things video.

A “Google” search for the term “educational video” will turn up 78,900,000 possibilities.  As I don’t have the time or inclination to explore each and every one, I appreciate when someone else has done the work for me.

Refseek  (http://www.refseek.com/directory/educational_videos.html) claims to have identified the 25 best sites for educational videos:

I visited several of them, but I think using one as a representative sample will demonstrate my point. MIT Video offers a “guide to more than 11,000 interesting MIT videos and lectures”.  That is the caveat: note the word “lectures”.  If we assume that a video of a talking head will provide us with an instructional or educational experience, we are making the same assumption that sending our child to attend class each day will provide him or her with an instructional or educational experience.  The truthful answer would be “sometimes”.  My search this week is for video that shows me something, how to understand something, a process or an activity or even conceptual interaction.

Back to MIT.

They are now up to over 12,000 videos!  So many, that they are now organized into one of 139 channels:

I decide to explore Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences:

There are 132 videos to choose from.  OOPS! I see a lot of talking heads! So I decide to try selecting from the menu on the left. I see that I have the option of selecting “educational”.  Really?  Isn’t this MIT?  Wouldn’t they all be educational? Actually, MIT does recognize that some of the videos describe events, or news, or have to do with community, so they do attempt to narrow down the search for you. After filtering using “educational”, the choices drop to 29.  I still see a lot of lectures, however.

So this time I filter using “demonstration”:

Only 1 video of the 132 offered under Humanities provides a demonstration:

I watch the video, described as “MIT CAST visiting artist Mark Stewart, Glass Lab faculty and students experiment with the acoustic properties of glass on Oct, 23rd, 2012”. As an observer you see how various glass objected create sounds in response to interaction with objects or breath.  But you don’t really learn anything.  Still, I’m not ready to give up. This is MIT after all!  I surf through several channels, filtering for demonstration, and found that a very small portion of the videos “demonstrate” and even those are frequently simply lecture or presentation.

Discussion:

Videos are excellent communication vehicles.  They activate both visual and aural receptors, making them a useful tool to enliven an instructional experience. But when we think of them in terms of augmenting education, we need to break free of the lecture approach that so typifies the traditional educational experience.  That means identifying what it is you are trying to convey.  A how to do something? A how to understand something? A how to analyze something?  I have used video in classes teaching participants how to make presentations. Using the video, they can assess themselves on their body language, nervous ticks, and repeated uses of the word “um”.  They can see for themselves what they do well and what needs work.  Similar to those sports videos that allow you to see what worked and what didn’t, what you might have done differently.

We also use videos at my workplace to demonstrate everything from how to load and run sorting equipment, to teaching supervisors how to handle employee complaints.  A successful educational video will provide the observer with the what, why and how.  They should come away with an improved understanding of the topic.

After revisiting Dr. Brady’s podcast and the assignment for this past week, I picked up on “instructional” video, and tried a search on that instead of the previous “educational video”.   This change in terms took me to a whole other world. The top 25 here (according to the Future of Learning, http://janeknight.typepad.com/pick/2010/02/25-places-to-find-instructional-videos.html ):

I found that by changing the focus from “educational” to one of “instructional”, there was a seismic shift in Google’s response.  This intrigues me.  Encarta defines Education as “the imparting and acquiring of knowledge through teaching and learning”.  “Instruction”, on the other hand, is “teaching” itself.  So it appears that when relating to education, the focus is more on the theoretical, while instruction focuses more on application.  I don’t know about you folks, but I definitely learned something this week.

 

Animation and Learning

Let me start by base lining my perceptions:  I take graphics to mean visual presentations; they may be animated (in motion), or static. Animation: a motion oriented representation of a process or other interaction. Simulation: allows a participant to interact with that process or interaction.  That is not to say that animations can’t be interactive.  Mouse roll overs can reveal addition nuances and layers to the presentation.  I point this out as technologies can cross over former “boundaries” and it can become very confusing as to just what you are discussing.  I found Richard Mayer’s work on Instructive Animation to be very illuminating. Dr. Brady made the point last week that humans are visually oriented, so visual materials – such as videos – are very effective in teaching.

Mayer takes that a step further – he found that a combination of visual and audio media allowed for the greatest transfer of information and highest retention level.  Theories that support this include “dual coding”: “humans possess distinct information- processing systems:  one that represents information verbally and one that represents information visually”.  Discussion includes the fact that working memory is limited to five or seven items.  If a learning module capitalizes solely on visual activation, as with graphics and written text, you overload that processing system. On the other hand, by splitting the media between visual approaches and audio (spoken words as opposed to written), you activate both channels and reduce overload.  I like the fact that much of Mayer’s work is grounded in cognitive psychology.  It is all too easy to assume social learning or social constructivist experiences encompass the needs of the learner.  We must remember that we are beings with specific processes and limitations. It does little good to design collaborative learning experiences enhanced by social presence if the message – the lesson itself – cannot be properly encoded and added to the individual’s knowledge base.

I find Mayer’s 7 Principles of Multimedia for Learning very helpful while designing a learning experience. The above principle of words and pictures is called the Multimedia Principle; students construct both verbal and pictorial mental models.  Spatial Contiguity suggests that corresponding words be placed in proximity to avoid using cognitive resources to search a page or screen for relationships.  Temporal Contiguity informs us to show visual/audio words simultaneously with pictures so that mental representations of both can be held in working memory at the same time.  This makes the most use of the dual coding.  Again, it should be stressed that audio words be used over text in conjunction with graphics for the best understanding and retention – this leads to the principle of Modality.  Too much a good thing can also hinder cognitive processing; the use of written text, audio, and pictures will not improve learning, but actually hinder it as again the visual channel becomes overloaded. Finally, Mayer offers the Personalization Principle; you need to know your audiences before you prepare your materials.  Recall Gagne’s 9 events of instruction; one is to activate prior knowledge.  If your audience is made up of low-level learners (learners with little prior knowledge), your materials will need to be more detailed and focused.  If your audience is made up of high-level learners, “their prior knowledge will compensate for lack of guidance in the presentation”.  Without knowing your audience, you run the risk of over simplifying – and boring the high knowledge learners, or not providing enough detail and losing the low-level learners.

Mayer’s work seems to explain the effectiveness of so many You Tube videos: there is visual activity as well as audio commentary, appealing to the dual coding.  So, if You Tube is such a good fit, why do we want to bother with animation, the “rapid display of a sequence of images to create an illusion of movement” (Wikipedia).  As Dr. Brady pointed out in his podcast, the answer is simplification.  Would a video of the heart pumping be as clearly seen and understood as the blood flow illustrated by Hemo The Magnificent?  As a student in grade school when I first saw this video I can attest to how effective it was.  The cartoon nature made it entertaining.  Overly accurate representations can be intimidating, and can assume knowledge not in evidence.  Many of Disney’s animations were brilliant in their visual and audio appeal, with simplicity and clarity of message.

Animation is a fascinating field.  I explored You Tube a bit and found a thoroughly impressive and entertaining set of videos called the Animator Vs Animation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHrlHRs7Sw

The animator successfully animates all things familiar to us on our windows desktops: the e from “Explorer”, the Word assistant (little paper clip guy), the firefox animal, solitaire cards….this is a brilliant piece of work, and immediately fueled my desire to learn to do animation.  There is something about taking depersonalized elements and icons and giving them personalities.  It smacks of Frankenstein – brou haaa haaaa haaaa.

I have never used animation to teach something, but I do see the possibilities!!  I searched and found an introduction to some of the available open source 3D design programs to assist in designing animation objects:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yJgDTcuaOo

You can find download links at http://tjfree.com/best-free-3d-modeli…

Here are some of the best, free 3D design programs available:

Blender – 3D Art Creation and Animation, similar to 3DS or Maya
Sweet Home 3D – Home layout and interior design tool
BRL CAD – CAD and solid modeling program, 2D/3D
Free CAD – Simple CAD prgram, 2D/3D
SketchUp – 3D solid modeling, easy to use

As well as 2D:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJVQ5owmInA

You can find download links at http://tjfree.com/best-free-2d-animat…

Here are some of the best free 2D animation programs available:

Inkscape – 2D Illistration program similar to Adobe Illistrator
Pencil – Simple 2D frame by frame animation creator
Tupi – More Advanced 2D frame by frame animation creator
Scratch – Simple and fun animation and game creator
Synfig Studio – Very advanced 2D animation creator

Thanks to this week’s exploration, I look forward to learning how to develop my own animations and using them to teach in the future!

You Tube and Personal Psychology

Dr. Brady mentioned the use of three social media sharing areas:  photos, music, and video.  I recall Picture Trail, a site where, for something like $17.00 a year, you could post albums. It was a venue for me to market costume jewelry, as well as show off my artistic talents in some of the projects I had completed.  I never did get involved with digital music. Of course, over the years I have progressed from vinyl to 8 tracks to cassettes to CDs…but I still tend to buy compilations rather than create my own. Not to say that I won’t get it to it someday.  I remember a coworker who was all excited over Napster.com.  He went on and on about free music downloads and how his music library had grown. I absent mindedly nodded as he spoke, not really paying attention, because I really wasn’t that interested.  Of course, we all know what happened to Napster.  I was shocked as I went through the class assignment materials over spring break to discover that twitter has been alive and well since 2006.  Again, it was something that just didn’t capture my interest.

Videos.  That is something separate, and apart.  Dr. Brady noted that humans are visually oriented. So yes, I have been an infrequent visitor to You Tube, although I must admit, I have used You Tube pretty much for entertainment purposes, not for learning.   I can count my You Tube searches on fewer than my ten fingers.  I saw the Beach Boys Farewell Tour last year, and promptly searched You Tube for videos of them back in their hey-day.  Brian Wilson’s life story has always resonated with me.  That such a genius should crack and break from the pressures of father, industry, and personal perfectionism illustrates the fragility of talent.  Yes, there were drugs, but escapism is what has haunted many of our most significantly creative and expressive individuals, whether literature with Edgar Allen Poe and Ernest Hemingway or art with Vincent Van Gogh.  By watching the old videos when Brian was a young man and the Beach Boys were just coming into popularity, I gain a vicarious insight into the reality that was his, but not his alone.

I came into my majority with Timothy O’Leary, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin headlining the news. I saw both the beautiful and the ugly.  As this was the same time that I was forming my own persona, my own mission of “who do you want to be when you grow up?”, these dramatic entrances and exits from the world had a decidedly sobering effect.  My own childhood was not the best, and that is what probably leads me to resonate so much with Brian’s experience.  I, too, worked hard to destroy my memories and move on using recreational drugs.  But I also knew that I was the “good child”, and the oldest, so I was the “dependable child”.  I rebelled, but I also kept limits. I knew how far I could go, based on what was expected of me. A tightrope, I admit.

Have I ever used You Tube to learn how to do something?  The straight answer is no – until this class. I did view several videos on how to write html and css, and found them to be enormously helpful.  I also looked at a couple that went into detail on how to create your own podcast, and who should host it.  Yes, I think there is probably a You Tube How To video on pretty much any subject you can come up with.  What impressed me as I sampled videos here and there was the innate teaching talent of so many of the video creators.  I found advance organizers, verbal descriptions of each step accompanied by physical demonstration; I found tacit knowledge that was openly shared.

This video on how to create a double ninja star is a perfect example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VD1OrdP-fA

If we discuss the future of universities and learning in general, it is obvious that You Tube is a vast resource that offers quality exchanges. Yes, you need to filter through and find the appropriate content, but doesn’t any professor do that in the first place when assembling materials for class?  I stumbled across this video on augmented reality, and the potential for learning is enormous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RuZY1NfJ3k

So it is not just the videos themselves, but the videos as portals and introductions to yet even more technologies that capture attention and interest.  Yes, Dr. Brady, a picture IS worth a thousand words.

For the purposes of this week’s tour of web 2.0 technologies, I searched a few capricious subjects in You Tube, the ninja star above being one of them.  Did you know that there is a video (actually, several score of them), that teach you how to walk in high heels?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NsqfS1wU7M

I am totally amazed that I was able to walk in those elevator shoes and high wedges when I was in my teens and twenties without expert help.  We just went out and learned the hard way. No, you cannot put weight on your heels in grass. Duh!

Finally, let us turn to my rant for the day: Facebook and security on the internet.  I was not and had no desire to be on Facebook. However, due to another class assignment, I had to create an account. So I created one under an assumed name.  Temporary account, temporary identity.  I just don’t like putting my dirty laundry, or even my clean laundry for that matter, out so that the whole planet can check it out.  She buys what where??? She knows who??  She has how many friends???   I guess that I do not rely on social feedback to inform me as to my value as an individual. But I am concerned about the generations that follow mine.  What about their values? What about their perspectives? Their strengths, their weaknesses? Do they perceive themselves as individuals – do they even have an opportunity to be individualistic? Or do they grow up as part of the larger technological social reality? Remember the Borg: you WILL be assimilated.

My final You Tube contribution concerns Facebook.  It is a how to on how to hack a Facebook account.  No, I will not use the knowledge I gained. But the knowledge is out there – for anyone who chooses to apply it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO0uBkZoBD0

Website: http://www.fbrecovery.net/

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The Wonderful Wide World of Web 2.0

Much of the content up for review this week has been fodder for complex reflection.  While I am aware of social media (who cannot be, when so many sites ask you to “like them” on Facebook, send a tweet, chat now, or “follow”), I am not an active participant or user of many of these avenues for connecting.  Yes, I am fond of email, and prefer that over the telephone at home and at the office.  I find this means of communication to be more direct and focused; the most efficient means of communicating, while I still retain control over when I choose to view or respond to – or delete – my messages.

I never blogged until I became a student of the Contemporary Technologies class.  I think that blogging is an art form that serves the development of intelligence by permitting reflective and thoughtful discourse on any particular subject. Of course, it is helpful to have developed a sense of writing style and command of the English (in my case) language and syntax.  Blogging requires a much more sophisticated communication style than the 140 character twitter posts…but then again, does it? In their article on Web 2.0 storytelling, Alexander and Levine write of “micro-chunking” and reconstructing content to fit in with new approaches to storytelling. They mention projects such as Hamlet reprised on Facebook, and Joyce’s Ulysses converted to one line twitter feeds.  It would seem to take an uncanny ability to shrink the proportions of literary style, voice, and emotion and repackage it in a means totally foreign to the original work.  In the changing of the telling, does the message get changed as well? In reconstruction, do we lose something of value that characterized the original? To answer my own question, I would compare a Cliff notes version to the full text of some literary effort.  Yes, you get the “meat” of the topic. But you miss out on the seasoning and the side dishes.  To truly hear the voice that is relating the story becomes part of the experience.

I found Tim O’Reilly’s article on Web 2.0 Design Patterns to be very enlightening.  Prior to reading the article, I understood that web 2.0 was an improvement over passive viewing of content by the user with the development of social media and software that enabled collaboration and user contribution. But I had no concept of what made certain design patterns so successful.  O’Reilly discusses the “long tail”, and I wrote a question in the margin as I was not familiar with this term.  According to Wikipedia, “in statistics, the long tail is the large number of occurrences far from the “head” or central part of a distribution of popularities, probabilities or such.^[1] A probability distribution is said to have a long tail if a larger share of population rests within its tail than would under a normal distribution. “

O’Reilly goes on to clarify that those design patterns that seek to cater to publishing (web 1.0) and not participation, that empower advertisers over consumers, are seeking only to engage those within the head or central distribution of popularity.  As anyone who knows statistics can tell you, a very small percent of the data points fall dead center, with the total number of points expanding as you go to the right and left.  O’Reilly makes the point that Overture and Google found their success by understanding “the collective power of the small sites that make up the bulk of the web’s content”.  So the Web 2.0 approach is an example of “disruptive technology” that we discussed a few weeks back. It required a reframing of what the product was, who the customer was, and how to achieve efficient connections between the two.  By catering to those at the edge and the end of the long tail, you capture a much greater market and possibilities than if you focus only on the head.

There are enough interesting points in this article to fuel another five blog entries.  For the sake of brevity, allow me to mention only a couple of others.   First, build your shields low enough to permit users to hack into your software so that they can improve it. Aside from the dangerous aspects of such hacking, leveraging the intelligence of your consumers to improve your product for you is just plain brilliant. And illustrates the underpinnings of a web 2.0 approach – collaboration and user contribution.  Second, it’s all about the data.  O’Reilly notes that “for competitive edge, sites need to seek to own a unique, hard to create source of data”.  This then becomes their ultimate “product”, and money maker.  And it is this point that provides a segue to my final topic of discussion, Facebook.

I am not a user of Facebook.  My familiarity includes watching the commercial where a daughter remarked on her parent’s proud claim to eight “friends”, rolling her eyes because she has 1,600 “friends”.  I know that you can “unfriend” people at will, and we have all heard about social bullying on Facebook.  Interestingly, when I thought to attend my (blank) high school reunion back in Maine last summer, I went to my high school website and the alumni section.  I could find nothing to indicate when or even if a reunion was being held. I learned much later on that the reunion had been publicized on Facebook.  Think about this.  The assumption is that EVERYONE belongs to FB and would look there first for vital information.  The fact that no mention was made at the institutional site devoted to alumni interaction just blows me away.  So in the end, I missed the reunion.  Or perhaps I should say that my FB “friends” from high school missed me.

Professor Brady asked us to consider how FB makes money.  What is their real product?  I again turned to Wikipedia (if it’s on the internet, it must be true!).   Data mining instantly comes to mind.  FB has often asserted a claim of policies that protect user’s privacy, yet has had to “settle US Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers by failing to keep privacy promises”, and 2010 claims by Wall Street Journal that “FB apps were transmitting identifying information to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies”.  Of course, FB took immediate action to correct this violation of their policies – but I think, to use a trite saying, where there is smoke, there is fire.  In light of O’Reilly’s observations, a company such as FB cannot afford to not take advantage of its unique source of data.  The other product that FB offers is access to its members.  Corporations pay well to place tailored advertising before the eyes of specific member groups that they might not otherwise reach.  In this manner FB isn’t releasing its data or hindering member privacy, but it is selling access to key markets created as a result of its hosting services.

So dear readers, I conclude this week’s blog. I’m off to a date with a French model.  I met him on the internet. Bon Jour!

Emergent Technologies

I think that tablet computing, along with the availability of hundreds of low cost APPs, will have a huge impact on education and training. No longer tied to a desk top, tablets permit mobility and access which will have the capability of making challenge based and active learning immediate and interactive.  Imagine going on a field trip and using the tablet to identify plant life.  Or interviewing people on the street and recording their responses on the spot. Or listening to a recorded symphony while you read about Beethoven.  The learning environment no longer consists of four walls and a desk, nor is it confined to single source information (the old text book!).

Communicating digitally has resulted in education turning heavily to more collaboration and multiple perspectives.  This is a direct result of people being involved in the digital world and social media. Blogs and wikis become living, breathing information.  Everyone becomes a student and everyone a teacher.  Second, the move to challenge-based and active learning makes the educational experience one that goes beyond theory and into actual problem solving and application. Tell me, show me, let me allows the student the satisfaction of actually moving from cognitive to real time application.  The usability and functionality of devices like the tablet allow the support of learning virtually anywhere, any time.

Also significant, especially for K-12, the WWW provides access to tools and applications never before available to the general student.  In John Seeley Brown and Richard Adler’s article “Minds on Fire”, they describe science projects that allow students to participate, such as the Faulkes Telescope Project.  Students can access high powered robotic telescopes remotely, and carry out their own scientific investigations.  Not only does this permit students the opportunity to actively engage in scientific inquiry, it allows them to explore possible career fields.  This is equally a boon to those public schools that simply don’t have the funding to obtain expensive equipment to support classroom learning.

The development of online communities of practice also opens the door to informal mentoring and social learning.  Similar to Aladdin’s lamp, all one needs to do is make a wish; a brief search will yield a multitude of opportunities to learn more about any subject that comes to mind. The mature surfer eventually learns what to absorb and what to discard, but cannot fail to enjoy that journey.

The computer – in whatever form, whether desktop, laptop, tablet, or even in the form of a smart phone – will be a permanent part of learning in the future.  Instantaneous access to information supports keeping abreast of new developments.  The variety of presentations available will please every type of learner: visual, audio or kinesthetic.  For the cost of equipment necessary to access the web, the user avoids the cost of textbooks, travel to libraries or even to class.  This approach to education also supports the green environment, minimizing our physical footprint by expanding and reusing digital assets.

I am also interested in the developing field of learning analytics.  If unobtrusive software can capture student patterns and then provide alternatives that support that student’s learning style and approach, education will be more effective for all students. We know learning is taking place, but how do we measure whether it is occurring effectively, or if we are using the best platforms or strategies to achieve it?  The rapidity with which technology is growing and the availability of new ways to access and apply new approaches often leaves evaluation in the dust.  Appropriate analytics would help to give real time feedback on educational endeavors.

The field with the most potential appears to me to be that of learning analytics.  We know learning is taking place, but how do we measure whether it is occurring effectively, or if we are using the best platforms or strategies to achieve it?  The rapidity with which technology is growing and the availability of new ways to access and apply new approaches often leaves evaluation in the dust.  Appropriate analytics would help to give real time feedback on educational endeavors.

What technology would I like to use?  I’m looking forward to gesture based technology, and interfaces that “react to touch, movement, voice, and facial expressions allow more freedom in how we interact with our devices” as mentioned in the Horizon report.  The potential for simulations – virtual experience – is unlimited. These approaches will level the playing field for the disabled and handicapped, and create new possibilities for those of us who were bound by the limitations of space and time.  For now, I’ll probably settle on a few APPS.  I always wanted to play the piano, and I think there are a couple of digital approaches for that!!

Impact of the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web emerged about 16 years ago, and has had an enormous impact on institutions and economies around the globe. So, how is it affecting education and training?

Wow, asking how the WWW is affecting education and training is like asking how the discovery of fire affected mankind. We aren’t stuck eating cold raw food, for one thing! But along with that discovery came a whole science that developed over time. How not to burn down your cave, for example. What fuels worked better than others, how to control the temperature, how to create it at will, portable tools and techniques for creating it.

The first thing that the WWW has done for education is made it accessible to anyone with digital access. If we consider education as both formal and informal experiences, simply being able to access Google search, ask.com or Wikipedia results in an immediate increase in knowledge. Meta tags and search codes enable you to find information on the most remote and obscure topics. Thanks to towns and communities digitizing old records you can search for that illusive ancestor, thanks to Google earth you can “fly” to an address and scope out the property. Accessing knowledge in many forms, from written, to symbols to pictorial, has become ubiquitous.

Another impact is the commercialization of education and training. Before the web, we relied on local institutions to provide us with an education. They were responsible for fulfilling society’s need for enlightenment. If you wanted to pursue a degree in an area not offered by your local college or university, you physically traveled to another state and enrolled, or if available, you might take a correspondence course. Well known universities developed reputations that became magnets for certain types of students: MIT, Harvard, and UC Berkeley as examples.

The WWW has changed all of that. There are more institutions offering online learning, giving the student options to attend classes from all over the world without the physical stress and expense of traveling. Candidates for higher education who could not pursue it due to job and family conflicts can now manage to attend class by cashing on the flexibility of asynchronous learning. The exchange of perspectives brought about by the influence of other cultures and the diversity of global exchange has caused us who use a western approach to learning to question and perhaps rethink education. Established academic institutions must now compete for student enrollments rather than the student hoping and praying for acceptance. Add to the mix nonacademic for profit organizations like the University of Phoenix…this has created cloudy areas of accreditation and reputation.

The web is often said to be a “disruptive technology.”

In his podcast, Kevin observes that “disruptive technology” is technology that upsets established patterns of businesses. Clayton Christensen talks about the innovative dilemma here:

http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2000/teradyne/clay.html

 Businesses use “sustaining” technologies to continually improve their products and stabilize their market share. They make the product that their customer wants. “Disruptive” technologies are innovations that if applied to this established product would decrease quality for a time.  Since pleasing the customer means more profit, no company wants to do something that might lower customer satisfaction.  It’s a vicious cycle – over time the disruptive technology – insert WWW here – will result in a far better product. But the current business model resists innovation for the reasons just mentioned.  Unfortunately, those companies who are unable to incorporate or adapt to new technologies may end up going out of business entirely.

“As the above graph shows, disruptive technologies cause problems because they do not initially satisfy the demands of even the high end of the market.  Because of that, large companies choose to overlook disruptive technologies until they become more attractive profit-wise.  Disruptive technologies, however, eventually surpass sustaining technologies in satisfying market demand with lower costs.  When this happens, large companies who did not invest in the disruptive technology sooner are left behind.  This, according to Christensen, is the “Innovator’s Dilemma.”

A very clear example of the struggle to stay on top of disruptive technologies is to look at Apple and Microsoft. If you haven’t read “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, I recommend it.

How is technology disrupting education?  Trying to transfer brick and mortar approaches to an online setting – YUK, it doesn’t work, and it makes me – the customer – unhappy. Come up with a new way to teach, a new learning environment using these new technologies – innovate – now you have a successful product.  Just look the growing pains suffered as we moved from correspondence courses to radio to TV to CD-ROMs to hybrid to fully online.  There have been some poor adaptations (MOOCs, perhaps?) and some brilliant ones.  I am very happy with my online education in OLIT.

How much do you use the WWW? What do you mostly use it for? Have you used it to learn something? What? Describe the experience and your reactions to it.

I no longer use a “telephone book” to look up a number or an address, I just search the web.  I never pick up a hard copy dictionary anymore either, or an encyclopedia for that matter, even though in K-12 I relied extensively on the family Funk and Wagnall’s.  I’m not totally giving up the past, however, I still like to browse printed catalogues and read paperback books.  But my kindle gets a fair amount of use as well, mainly because it is less expensive to download a digital book than buy the hard copy. However, I do not like not being able to riffle back through pages looking for something; the back click button is clunky.  I use the web daily to read my email, check out the daily stories on AOL, to search topics or words that I want to know more about.  While in school mode, most of my search and web use time is related to class.  When class is not in session, I’ll probably go back to spending more time on EBay.

When I first became interested in collecting costume jewelry from the 40’s and 50’s, I spent a lot of time online searching history and designers.  I found several “Groups” AKA Communities of Inquiry with similar interests.  I learned tons from these people and their resources.  Never had to worry about social presence because our shared interest in jewelry always kept everyone fired up, quick to share, and frequent participants.

 

 

Learning Management Systems and PLEs

Learning Management Systems – I spent about an hour looking at comparisons of what various systems offered, and must confess, I was ready to run screaming from the room. All of the catch phrases are there, in abundance: transformational, collaborative, innovative. Integrated! Learning analytics! It seems that now the big market push is for e Portfolios, so that lifelong learners have “the ability to document their learning journey, and share their achievements with peers and evaluators beyond their graduation date” (thanks to Desire2Learn).

This appears to be a response to what Dr. Brady has voiced: the restrictive environment of an institutionally bound LMS that “wipes the slate” at the end of the semester, so that students can no longer access their work. Implications: imagine beginning your diary as a child, but online as opposed to within a small key-locked book. Over the years you continue to write, journaling about your thoughts and experiences. To have access to who you were at that moment, years ago – being able to go back and revisit those thoughts and impressions. To have documented your life, your education, your very soul. Being able to link all of your online/digital products in one place where they remain accessible for as long as you need or desire almost hints at a state of immortality.

There are several articles that address how to choose the LMS that’s right for you and they tend to agree. List the functionalities that you need, prioritize them, and then compare systems. But even at that, there were over 120 Learning Management Systems listed at one comparison site (http://www.sharepointlms.com/compare/2.html).

We have an LMS at work, and I tried to figure out whose software it is. When I right clicked and looked at properties, I found http://www.W3.org. When I checked their site, however, I discovered that they are the World Wide Web Consortium, “an international community that develops open standards to ensure the long term growth of the web”. So I don’t really think they authored my LMS, but possibly provided the template that was used for the web page I obtained the properties from. I suspect that the system itself may be Sharepoint, as that is also what is used for our internal web sharing. I have found our “learning Portal” to be helpful in that it has made the need to compile and store hard copy training records obsolete. I can now print my entire training history of over 20 years with just a click.

As for features, the LMS provides searchability by topic or operational area. When I log on, it brings up my job title and a list of position qualifications that go with that title. Unfortunately, they all show me as “missing the qualification form my qualification profile”, and then when you click on that, it notes “you do not have this qualification”, followed by “There is currently no course offered that imparts this qualification”. ????? So the LMS tells me I am unqualified for my position and there is no training available to remedy that.

I like that I can book just about any course that I am interested in; I make the request and an email goes to my manager asking him to approve it. Once he does, I usually have 90 days to complete the course. Much of the courseware offered on my LMS are canned Skillsoft courses; these tend to be text-based PowerPoint type presentations. You advance through each slide while voice over reads the text. As you complete a module, you are tested by multiple choice or drag and drop options. Your test results are immediately scored and depending on the lower limit of acceptable, you might have to take the material again. I find this whole approach extremely tedious, plus, if it is complex information, I take a screen shot as I pass thru each slide so that I have a “text” that I can refer to. I do not believe that any training course should be offered without content resources available. Some of the courses border on “simulations”, such as one that taught about using Adobe Flash. I did find this approach helpful in learning a new procedure, such as the correct order of activities, but for the most part I think that I am more likely to do a google search on a topic and learn about it that way than depend on the content available to me in the system.

I think that technology all comes down to user friendliness. WebCT seemed workable enough; now that UNM has moved to Blackboard Learn, I am finding some frustrating issues, particularly as relates to the “settings” that are apparently selected by the instructor. For example, in one class I am not permitted to make an attachment to an in-class email. In the other class I can, but if I have more than one document I can attach only one, and have to complete another email for the other attachment. Same with the discussion threads; only one attachment allowed! I think I did find an in course blog that permitted me to do two attachments. A small thing, but frustrating. I also prefer to have links to the major course areas listed in the menu to the left. In one of my current courses you must click on a learning module to open yet another menu to access discussions related to that module (as opposed to just clicking on “discussions” at the left).

In sampling through some of the available LMSs out there, I did find that they were beginning to find ways to enable plug ins or access to the more popular social media sites such as You Tube. Desire2Learn offers “other social tools including instant messaging, email, blogging, and hundreds of third party integrations including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn©, Google, Microsoft Office, and many more integrations.”

I found the article on Personal Learning Environments to be intriguing. In a previous class with Dr. Grassberger we learned to develop Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), a compilation of resources (hardcopy, digital and human) that we would frequently turn to when researching or seeking information. As Sclater noted in his article, current LMS approaches encourage dependency rather than autonomy by restricting what is accessed and how it is used. So we, as adult learners, navigate back and forth between the LMS and our “outside” resources to accomplish our tasks. In this sense, we have each created our own personal learning environment – it just isn’t an integrated one.

It appears to me that developers are trying to respond to the needs of students and educators as well as to those of administrators. As we grow into digitally complex individuals who seek to come together for collaboration or just to share information, new ways to bring our personal tools into the mix, whether by way of a higher learning experience or just as a social aside, there needs to be a better means of integrating all of those digitalized pieces of ourselves together.