Flatlined During Class

Posted on by Jack McShea

This published finding may not be scientifically significant (N=1) for some applications, but if nothing else it does provoke a chuckle (and a tendency to draw general conclusions without enough supporting data simply because – let’s face it – we’ve all been there).

A study published in the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering reports data from a wearable sensor attached to a student for a week. The portable sensor records the electrodermal activity of the wearer.

“Changes in skin conductance at the surface, referred to as electrodermal activity (EDA), reflect activity within the sympathetic axis of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and provide a sensitive and convenient measure of assessing alterations in sympathetic arousal associated with emotion, cognition, and attention.”

Note the times at which the student is at class (yellow underscore).

No doubt this demonstration will be adopted by proponents of the Inverted Classroom and other related high-engagement learning techniques as an illustration of why the traditional lecture or classroom should be avoided. It is gratifying to note that activity levels during labs (yellow-green) and while doing homework and study (pink and red) are elevated. But then again, upon further inspection the sleep cycle is pretty impressive too.

One can hope this is followed by further investigations and discussions on the physiological and psychological meaning of the EDA waveforms given that the primary purpose of the paper is to report on Poh, Swenson and Picard’s work on sensor development.

 

References.

Poh, M.Z., Swenson, N.C., Picard, R.W., “A Wearable Sensor for Unobtrusive, Long-term Assessment of Electrodermal Activity,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol.57, no.5, pp.1243-1252, May 2010. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2009.2038487

Download a PDF of the report here.

Ito, Joi, “A week of a student’s electrodermal activity“ http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2012/04/30/a-week-of-a-stu.html

 

 

One Response to Flatlined During Class

  1. Jack McShea says:
    January 29, 2013 at 11:26 am

    Increasing numbers of middle schools, high schools and colleges are flipping or inverting their courses. Flipping is catching on with impressive results, catching praise from both students and teachers. Apparently even parents are pleased.

    “Flipping yielded dramatic results after just a year, including a 33 percent drop in the freshman failure rate and a 66 percent drop in the number of disciplinary incidents from the year before, Green said. Graduation, attendance and test scores all went up. Parent complaints dropped from 200 to seven.

    Green attributed the improvements to an approach that engages students more in their classes. ‘Kids want to take an active part in the learning process,’ he said. ‘Now teachers are actually working with kids.’ “

    A few careful watchers are calling for research into the method, questioning its effectiveness and long-term value. Others already note that it does come at a cost: It is more work for the teacher. Production of background audio and video presentations aside, it is dangerous to fill the class time with material that is not engaging. No old-wine-in-new-bottle here. This is going to be the major obstacle to the widespread success (not adoption) of the Inverted Classroom.

    “The concept has its downside. Teachers note that making the videos and coming up with project activities to fill class time is a lot of extra work up front, while some detractors believe it smacks of teachers abandoning their primary responsibility of instructing.”

    References.
    ‘Flipped Learning’ Classroom Model Embraced By Teachers In Schools Nationwide
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/flipped-learning-classroo_n_2567279.html

    Teachers Flip for ‘Flipped Learning’ Class Model
    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/teachers-flip-flipped-learning-class-model-18330896?page=2

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