Posts Tagged ‘ technology ’

Boning Up on Online Instruction

(c) Peter Steiner, The New Yorker, 69(20).

Although online instruction has grown to be far from a fad, I’ve noticed something peculiar about it. Online courses are nobody’s favorite. Well, that might be going too far. They are clearly among the favorites of administrators and managers hoping to distribute “virtual classroom environments” far and wide without the encumbrances of airplanes, hotels and school buildings, but I’ve never heard of a teacher coming specifically to the profession with a burning desire to teach online.

So far – and it might be too early to see this – the online experience has not produced a teacher, instructor or (God forbid!) an instructional designer who has had a Road-to-Damascus experience online, where one minute there is an ardent but resistant learner and the next a flaming would-be pedagogue anxious to commandeer the reins of a class in order to lead others to a similar experience. Interestingly, two professions that always seem to have an element of mission in them are the clergy (naturally enough) and teaching.

On the flip side students don’t (yet) choose online courses above face-to-face instructor-lead classes – fancy hotels and travel per diems notwithstanding. The reason this is important is that on the one hand it’s unlikely that anyone in the education professions today is going to be able to avoid teaching through or writing for the online environment; and on the other, it might not be a preferred medium, leading one to feel a bit out of place, awkward or even bungling as an online instructor.

Fortunately help is at hand. There are many good references and guides for online training that can assist the new-comer in getting started or serve as a refresher for those returning to the virtual classroom after a hiatus. One resource worth noting is Dr Curt Bonk‘s collection of online video primers for e-Teaching and Learning. The 27 videos focus on planning and delivery of online instruction. The presentations are directed at the college instructor but most are equally of interest to corporate and government trainers. Each video is about 10 minutes in length. Topics include:

  • Planning Online Courses
  • Managing Online Courses
  • Providing Feedback
  • Online Interaction
  • Quality Supplemental Materials
  • Blended Learning Implementation
  • Online Visual Learning
  • Webinars and Webcasts
  • Podcasting Uses and Applications
  • Wiki Uses and Applications
  • Blog Uses and Applications
  • Hands-on Experiential Learning
  • Assessing Student Online Learning
  • Trends on the Horizon

The video primers on e-Teaching and Learning can be viewed here at the Indiana University School of Education Instructional Consulting web site.

Related Links.

On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog

Video Primers in an Online Repository for e-Teaching & Learning

Curt Bonk’s e-Learning World

The World is Open

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2010
10/20
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Playing Doctor – Simulations A Big Help In Medical Training

When should simulations be used in class? Do they matter or are they eye candy, empty demonstrations and a waste of time? A recent study published in Medical Teacher suggests that medical students benefit significantly in both learning and retention when high fidelity simulations are used in training. Authors Corey Heitz, Ashley Brown, James E. Johnson & Michael T. Fitch of Wright State University and Wake Forest University School of Medicine, compared the educational effects of a 90-minute live simulation to a traditional lecture.

A team of physicians assisted the in the presentation by acting the roles emergency medical staff, nurses and even family members. A computerized Laerdal SimMan(tm) was programmed to represent the patient who displayed symptoms like nausea, mental confusion and vomiting. As reported in Heitz, et al. (2009) the students were immersed in a theatrical enactment of the medial crisis:

“A Laerdal SimManTM was transported from the simulation center to the medical school lecture hall where a prerecorded EMS radio call announced the arrival of the fully clothed simulation mannequin. Resident physician actors portrayed EMS provi- ders, nurses, and family members. Student volunteers ran the case as emergency physicians and patient management decisions were guided by class input. The clinical scenario was enhanced with group discussion of the relevant basic science mechanisms underlying the autonomic nervous system, neurotransmitters, receptors, and neuropharmacology.” – Heitz et al. (2009)

The authors note that one of the key differences in this trial was the size of the group – 112 students in two groups. The live simulation was based on a clinical scenario designed to bring out basic concepts in neuroscience already presented in a lecture several days earlier by a participant who was unaware of the study.

Results of the training were measured using four multiple-choice pre-tests and post-tests.

“The primary study outcome was this comparison of student performance on a pretest compared to a posttest administered immediately after the simulation session, and participants were significantly more likely to get all four posttest questions correct after experiencing the simulation.” Heitz et al. (2009)

A follow-up post-test was given to students eleven days later to assess retention. The researchers suspect that immersion in the simulation contributed to recall:

“The concepts presented during our simulation session improved student testing immediately and may have facilitated performance on an examination 11 days later.”  - Heitz et al. (2009)

The authors conclude that the use of simulations of this kind can be valuable in medical education:

“The students not only felt the simulation experience correlated well with basic science concepts, but also showed statistically significant improvement on the pre- and posttest examinations. Our results show that this type of learning exercise may provide an alternative for ‘‘typical’’ lecture-style education.” – Heitz et al. (2009)

References.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (2009, July 14). “Simulating Medical Situations Helps Students Learn, Retain Basic Science Concepts”. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090714085822.htm

Heitz, Corey , Brown, Ashley , Johnson, James E. and Fitch, Michael T.(2009) “Large group high-fidelity simulation enhances medical student learning”, Medical Teacher, 31: 5, e206 — e210

Emergency Simulations at Wake Forest University School of Medicine

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2010
04/23
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The Inverted Classroom

The Inverted ClassroomI’m tired of talking. Let me explain. One of the basic rules of thumb for adult learning says that a class should be a little more than half practical application and workshop material to appeal to the audience. That aside, classroom (or instructor-lead) training has become expensive, and managers and consumers have become vocal in letting us know that they want to make sure it’s worth their time and money. To be plain, are we doing all we can to make the trip worthwhile?

I have always been an advocate for lots of hands-on activity in class, probably because it matches my own learning style but also because the majority of the attendees enjoy it. Not surprisingly, in the midst of teaching a class a few years ago, I started to wonder if I could get more time for discussion and activities, and lessen the burden we all felt in getting through the lecture pieces to the workshops. In this particular case the lecture was preparatory to the workshops and provided necessary background required to complete the labs and assignments. Fortunately, in addition to instructor-lead courses, I also work on web-based training and have done many voice over and narration tracks for online and computer-based presentations. Eureka! I found a way to off-load all the passive broadcasting of background material and recoup the time for projects, experiments, discussion and debate–the things that make class interesting and engaging. Although I didn’t have a name for it, I adopted the Inverted Classroom and have since learned that many others have had, either from desire or need, their own Eureka! experiences.

The “Inverted Classroom” as coined by professors Lage, Platt and Treglia in a paper presented to the Journal of Economic Education, Winter 2000, moves away from the traditional lecture. In it they describe how they saw a need to serve a wider variety of learning styles in class:

“Recent evidence has shown that a mismatch between an instructor’s teaching style and a student’s learning style can result in the student learning less and being less interested in the subject matter (Borg and Shapiro 1996; Ziegert forthcoming). This finding implies that either educational administrators should strive to ensure a good match between the instructor’s teaching style and the students’ learning styles (a difficult task) or that concerned instructors should use a portfolio of teaching styles so as to appeal to a variety of student learning types. Unfortunately, a majority of introductory economics courses are taught using only one teaching style–the traditional lecture format (Becker and Watts 1995).”

Lage, Platt and Treglia define the inverted classroom in simple terms:

“Inverting the classroom means that events that have traditionally taken place inside the classroom now take place outside the classroom and vice versa.”

What this means is that the class is designed in such a way that “passive” activities (such as listening to a lecture) are done outside class and what was lecture is replaced by workshops, discussion, and activities that require interaction. In theory this should increase the value of class time and provide more time for new and additional material. Educators are still unsure how to optimize the inverted classroom, but what seems clear is that inverted classes will use of a mix of technologies like podcasts, DVDs, PowerPoint, text, video and interactive media in conjunction with hands-on projects and group activities.

Researchers Gerald C. Gannod, Janet E. Burge and Michael T. Helmick of Ohio’s Miami University are carrying out a study to evaluate the design and delivery of inverted classes in computer engineering. In a work-in-progress report delivered to the ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 2007, Gannod states:

“Based on the SGID analysis performed on the course, student acceptance of the inverted classroom process has been well-received. Over eighty-five-percent of the students (in a class of twenty) have responded favorably to the inverted classroom structure, while over ninety-percent prefer the short learning activities over more prolonged assignments. In regards to the use of podcasting as a lecturing medium, students have indicated that the ability to use the play, pause, reverse, and fast-forward capabilities of the podcasted videos beneficial to their ability to learn the material.”

From the standpoint of instructor overhead, questions remain concerning the difficulty in designing, deploying and maintaining an inverted class. Certainly, the initial chore of creating podcasts (if they are used) may be considerable. Further, a sufficient number of high-quality projects and activities are required (vapid “busy work” may be less tolerated than boring lectures). Finally, the students must rise to the new class format and, to use an expression from the past, “come to class prepared.” Gannod plans to address issues of faculty overhead, podcast production and course maintenance in an upcoming report.

References.

Lage, Maureen, J., Platt, Glenn, J., and Treglia, Michael, “Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating  an Inclusive Learning Environment”, Jnl of Economic Education, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Winter 2000), pp. 30-43.

Gannod, Gerald, C., Burge, Janet, E., Helmick, Michael, T., “Using the Inverted Classroom to Teach Software Engineering”, Technical Report MU-SEAS-CSA-2007-001, Miami University, Department of Computer Science and Systems Analysis, School of Engineering and Applied Science, 2007.

Gannod, Gerald, C., “Work in Progress – Using Podcasting in an Inverted Classroom”, 37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, October 10-13, 2007.

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2009
11/14
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New Science Points To New Classrooms

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In a note that could have been taken from one of Maria Montessori’s books, researchers in neuroscience, machine learning, education and psychology have convened to show that findings from a joint study suggest that “the prepared environment” might be supported by new scientific data.

“The ‘prepared environment‘ is Maria Montessori’s concept that the environment can be designed to facilitate maximum independent learning and exploration by the child.”

Terrence J. Sejnowski, Ph.D, researcher at the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and co-director of the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC) at the University of California, San Diego, echoes Montessori in his team’s findings. As quoted in Science Daily:

“To understand how children learn and improve our educational system, we need to understand what all of these fields [neurobiology, psychology, education, machine learning] can contribute. Our brains have evolved to learn and adapt to new environments; if we can create the right environment for a child, magic happens.”

The cross-disciplinary research points to a new science of learning that might influence the way classrooms are organized and run in the future. In particular, three guiding principles (or concurrent processes) emerge from the study:

  1. Learning is computational
  2. Learning is social
  3. Learning is supported by neurological (perception-action) circuits

Research in machine learning and developmental psychology illuminate the computational complexity employed by learners who use statistical patterns and probabilistic models to infer rules of logic, relationships between words, syntax, and causal dependence between objects in the physical world.


Evidence that the three component processes happen concurrently is supported by the fact that learners do not calculate and compile statistical models of the environment indiscriminately but throttle the process using social cues from the people around them. Further, animal studies point to the presence of certain neurosteroids secreted during social interaction that promote learning.

Imitation also comes into play as a key factor:

“Imitation [presumably from others in the environment] accelerates learning and multiplies learning opportunities. It is faster than individual discovery and safer than trial-and-error learning.”

In essence, a social context fosters learning.

Brain circuits that support both actions and perceptions are directly involved with learning. As seen in language learning, for example, there is a complex mix of imitative, computational and articulatory processes that come into play as learning proceeds that might be further facilitated or enhanced at specific developmental periods. In general, neuroscientists have determined that there is considerable overlap in the systems brought into play during learning that support both perception and action. From Science:

“For example, in human adults there is neuronal activation when observing articulatory movements in the cortical areas responsible for producing those articulations. Social learning, imitation, and sensorimotor experience may initially generate, as well as modify and refine, shared neural circuitry for perception and action.”

Finally, experts in machine learning and artificial intelligence are taking advantage of the recent findings in social learning, computational modeling and the plasticity of the brain to design software that monitors and uses social cues and environmental factors to enhance learning. In the future this software may be used in tutorial programs or embedded in instructional robots that are specifically “tuned” to enhance teaching practices in classrooms.

References.

New Science Of Learning Offers Preview Of Tomorrow’s Classroom

Foundations for a New Science of Learning

New science of learning offers preview of tomorrow

From baby scientists to a science of social learning

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2009
09/19
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Top Ten Things Learned from K-12 Students About Educational Technology – But Were Afraid to Ask

Tsunami Warning! Head for the High Ground.

Julie Evans of Project Tomorrow delivered a talk at The Future of Education web site on the findings of Speak Up, an annual national research project sponsored by her organization. Titled Top Ten Things We Learned from K-12 Students About Educational Technology in 2008, the report is a real eye-opener and should be of great interest not only to high school and college instructors but also corporate, government and military trainers who need to prepare for the educational tsunami that is forming. A table of findings from the survey are presented below. Many of the issues reported in the summary are already being seen in adult training venues. Others, no doubt, are just over the horizon and will certainly become standard topics of sundry research reports, conference talks, and blogs like this in the near future.

Item Clarification
Digital Divide is Alive & Well The digital divide between students and adults (including teachers and parents) continues to widen – despite all of the investments and professional development, our students are still powering down to go to school and powering up after school to re-enter the digital world.  Other digital divides exist as well between segments of the student population including gender, technology skill self-assessment and age.
Spectrum of Digital Native-ness Don’t assume all digital natives are the same.  The Speak Up data reveals that there is a spectrum of “digital native-ness” today with younger and older students exhibiting increasingly divergent tech behaviors as well as very different attitudinal views on technology within learning.  Case in point – a 5th grader is almost 5X more likely to participate regularly in a virtual world than an 11th grader.
Explosion of Access to Mobile
Devices		 Today’s K-12 students are carrying “multiple computers in their pockets and backpacks” everyday.  Highlights from the data include:  almost 40% of K-2 students have their own cell phone, about half of students in Gr 3-5 have their own MP3 player and almost 24% of middle and high school students are carrying around a smartphone or PDA.
New Obstacles to Tech Use @ School Technology use at school is still a major frustration/disappointment factor for the overwhelming majority of students.  #1 obstacle to effective tech use (for the 5th year in a row) is school filters and firewalls – of course. But the real surprise was this year’s #2 obstacle – teachers that limit our technology use.  The students told us in focus groups that they had better access to technology before their teachers received training on technology use!
Let Me Use My Own Devices! So, what advice do students have for their schools about improving technology access at school? Across the board, the students say “let me use my own devices at school!”  Students want to be able to use their own laptops, cell phones, MP3 players and Smartphones for a variety of applications within instruction.  They, of course, want access to the network as well – from anywhere on campus and from home, too.
Online Learning –Defying
Conventional Wisdom		 One-quarter of all high school students have already had experience with an online class – and that experience most likely was self-initiated by the student, not the school or the teacher. Adults say that students want to take an online class for scheduling or convenience reasons or to get college credit.  However, we find that the students have different motivating reasons.  Today’s middle school students tell us that the #1 reason they would like to take an online class is as a supplement to their traditional class, not in place of that class.  They want additional help in a subject where they are struggling.  What is that subject?  Math – the new frontier for online learning.
21st Century Skills & Gaming Students say that the incorporation of gaming technologies within instruction will help them better develop skills in critical thinking, decision-making, teamwork and creativity.  How do they know that?  From their own “learning” experiences with all kinds of digital and online games outside of school.  Over 2/3 of all K-12 students are regularly  interacting with some kind of electronic games, averaging 8-10 hours a week in game play.  The devices vary greatly by user profile however.  Girls are most likely to enjoy computer based games; younger students thrive in a cell phone game environment.  Gaming is not just for high school boys anymore!
Technology & Student Social
Activism		 While the majority of social network fans are using their MySpace or Facebook sites for standard communications (email, IM) 10% of students in grades 6-8 told us that they have created a special interest group on their personal website about an issue that they were interested in, 15% have participated in an online poll about world issues and 17% regularly use the Internet to research local or world problems.  Activism and technology goes hand in hand even in middle school today.
Wake Up Call for Our Nation’s
Schools		 The greatest divide amongst students today in terms of their behaviors and attitudes about technology use, in school and out of school, is reflected in their own self-assessment of their tech skills.  The students that perceive themselves as technology advanced compared to their peers (average tech users and beginners) have dramatically different views on technology across the board.  This self-assessment divide follows through when we polled students about their own school’s ability to prepare them for the jobs and careers of the 21st century.  While less than half of the students in grades 6-12 said that their school was doing a good job preparing them for the future, only 23% of the technology advanced students held that same view.  This should be a wake up call to all educators – our most technology advanced students are giving our schools a failing grade!
The New Face of Personalized
Learning – the Free Agent Learner		 The #1 trend we saw in 2008 from our Speak Up data analysis work and our focus group discussions with students all across the country is the emergence of the “Free Agent Learner.”  This Free Agent Learner is un-tethered to traditional school institutions, is engrossed in developing their own content for learning, regularly creates new communities for knowledge exchanges and social interaction, and is an expert in data aggregation to drive experiential learning.  The Free Agent Learner believes that he or she must be responsible for their own learning destiny since their school is not meeting their needs, and is empowered by a wide variety of emerging technologies to do so.  The Free Agent Learner is as we write and speak defining the new face of education for the next generation and still, with few exceptions, our schools do not even realize this new style of learner exists – at least not yet. Welcome to 2009!

A Word file of the top ten findings can be downloaded here.

A PowerPoint file of Julie Evans’ talk at the Future of Education web site can be gotten here.

An audio recording of Ms. Evans’ talk can be found here.

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2009
07/15
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The Invisible Browser

invisiblecomputer

I think it was Donald Norman in “The Invisible Computer” who pointed out that as technologies get more and more common, and perhaps accepted, they recede into the background of our lives and become invisible. Witness the electric motor in the 19th century and the microprocessor in the 20th. (How many microprocessors do you have in your life today?)

Are we witnessing a similar “technology blindness” to the web browser? Is Internet connectivity and usage so ubiquitous that average users take it for granted? A recent survey by Google, reported at TheNextWeb.com, suggests that the average American (almost 92%) do not know what a web browser is and cannot contrast it to a search engine (like Yahoo, Bing, Cuil). Whether this has ramifications on Web 2.0 and education remains to be seen.

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2009
06/19
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