Thursday 20 October 2016

#edTech Education one on one by Mike Sharples

Mike Sharples gives a follow-up talk on educational technology, now with a strong focus on contemporary options. The previous talk covered EdTech from 1950-2010 and this talk looks at contemporary technology and pedagogy related to edTech. A link to the full slide deck can be found at the end of this blogpost. 

Looking at technology.
We are ready for implementations to augment our learning: iphone headphones, translation through earplugs… the augmented human is becoming a reality.
Smart earpiece to get information
Now AR/VR exhibition: transparent screens to look into a building, or any other landscape. Within a year this will happen.
New tech can augment learning, but what are the educational possibilities and dangers of that.
For instance: a company is selling monorean: to cheat on tests, wireless communication to cheat during exams. This mean it might disrupt education.
1963: a smart earpiece of a child with an earpiece going to Antarctica (extract of short stury by Brian Aldiss ‘the thing under the glacier). Already a neural controlled earpiece accessing the internet.
Early signals: explore educational benefits and discuss risks and disruptions. Sharples (2002)
Future Technology workshops: fun way to explore possibilities. A structured group method to systematically envirion and explore future technologies and activities. Vavoula & Sharples (2007). Exploreing what is happening at the moment, think about how these existing techs can be enhanced, then explore future options by thinking differently about them, finally looking at interactions with these future techs.
Challenge: identify techs that might enhance and disrupt education in 2020.

Now looking at pedagogy:
Pedagogy theory and practice of teaching, learning and assessment (built upon the NMR horizon reports, but looking further than only the technology). So same approach but focusing on pedagogy.
Some pedagogies covered: rhizomatic learning, personal inquiry, flipped classroom, crossover learning, learning to learn, geo-learning, learning by storytelling, threshold concepts, bricolage.
Crossover learning: how do you connect learning in the classroom with learning in a non-formal setting. First thing is to think about what is happening. How do the learning activities of informal and classroom learning differ in: initiation, support, goals, activities, outcomes? What are the benefits of connecting formal and informal learning? How can educational technologies support this pedagogy?

Learner initiated
Teacher initiated
Learner managed
Informal learning (eg. Internet browsing)
Self-managed learning (eg homework)
Teacher managed
Non-formal learning (evening classes, MOOCs)
Formal learning (schools)

Thinking about learning outside the classroom, reflective learning inside the classroom.
Crossover learning example: MyArtSpace: explore, collect andshare. Learning between classroom, museum and home. Using mobile devices to collect evidence of what they were learning. Need: to make school museum visits more effective. Aim: connect learning in museums and classrooms. Change from worksheet exercises to inquiry led learning: giving a question to start from and ask the students to provide proof for answering the question. This involved editing the objects that the students brought back as well. This approach increased the student engagement with the museum (from 20 min to 90 min), and great engagement (website set up, collaborating). One challenge was for the museum staff, as their workload increased dramatically. So there is always the interaction between all parts of the system that needs to be taken into account.
Having a new look at the groundbreaking paper of Meltzoff,Kuhl, Movellan, and Sejnowski (2009). Learning is supported by braincircuits that connect various thinking parts. Neural learning, computational learning, social learning, developmental learning, contextual and temporal learning.  The brain can adjust at any given age, they have plasticity. Through engaging in the world we learn for future engagement.
Insights from neuroscience:
Timing
Spacing between stimuli for long term memory
Spaced learning
Neural plasticity

Environment enrichment, critical periods, resilience, learning to respond positively to environmental change
stress



Spaced learning: what can we learn from neurology to look at optimal design for learning. DNA synthesis in the synapses of the brain. Three short learning episodes spaced by 10 minutes of physical activity (eg clay modelling). A Studies are now being repeated in 15 schools. Kelley, whatson (2013) making long-term memories in minutes in human neuroscience.
Insights in behavioral sciences (example: Gloyo, a game to learn children how to wash their hands effectively to decrease risk of disease):
positive reinforcement
positive behaviour that is rewarded tends to be repeated
behaviour modification




Insights from cognitive sciences
Feedback
Giving immediate feedback is successful for easy learning tasks.
Assessment for learning, mastery learning
Constructivist learning
Students who actively explore a topic, then receive instruction perform better than students who are instructed first, then explore
Productive failure, learning by constructing
Context and learning
We understand new topics in the context of what we already know.
Case-based learning, learning from examples
language
Language enables cognition
Learning multiple languages, meta-language and metcognition

Example: productive failure: learning by exploring complex problems. Lectures before learning sets limiting boundaries, while exploration opens learning. Explore first, than be instructed.
Insights from social sciences
Cooperative learning
People learn best when they learn toghether. For groups to work: shared goals, each person knows how and when to contribute, everyone makes an appropriate contribution, share rewards in a fair way, opportunity to reflect on progress and to discuss contributions
Cooperative learning, jigsaw learning, team-based learning
Zone of proximal development
Learners should work in a zone where they can be helped: between what they can already do anuaided, and what is far too difficult
Scaffolding, peer learning
Learing organisations
Organisations are learning systems
Double loop organisational learning: setting up objectives and strategies for institutional change, with improved educational practices and feedback for agile development based on learning analytics.



Example FutureLearn: social learning at massive scale, so  looking at pedagogies that actually get better when learned by scale. Learning through conversation (productive conversations). The more peole who exchange ideas and perspectives, the better the effective learning happens.

Designing learning with technology: look at Design-based research: in essence a series of design experiments, Whang, Hannafin (2008).
Evaluating educational technology innovations: a serious investigation means multiple studies and multiple methodological approaches. Using an outcome measure that has nothing to do with the intervention under study can easily mask gaps or inconsistencies.

What next?
Scalable and sustainable learning systemes beyond MOOCs, intelligent tutoring systems (a tutor for every learner), personalised and social learning at massive scale (how to combine dthe learning benefits of social and personal learning), orchestration outside the classroom (facilitating informal learning), liflong professional development (connecting learning in workplaces and classrooms), distributed accreditation (blockchain tech for education), formative analytics.
Which future? The best way to predict the future is to invent it (Alan Kay).

The overall take out is that a mix of approaches will give strong results.