Reading Wars

By Laura (who has PhD in political science, but is not affiliated with any university right now. Instead she's changing diapers in New Jersey.) - from her About

There is a political war between two sides about reading in America [All are quotes from Laura]:

	Whole Language	Phonics
Supporters	Teachers College experts and the Board of Education	Diane Ravitch, Bush, and the City Journal people
Belief	Teachers are directionless. Many are slackers, protected by their union brethren. Phonics will force the teachers to conform to a uniform approach to teaching, one that proven results. Test scores improve after using phonics. This method has been especially useful working with kids on the lower end. key words -- proven, uniform, tested, science, rules	teachers and students shouldn't be cramped by rules or testing. Both will blossom when given the opportunity to choose their own course. If the whole language approach works well in upper income schools, then it should also be used in lower income areas. key words -- self-directed, creative, natural, holistic, intuition
have faith in:	teachers	test scores

There are a number of comments worth noting as well:

The most ridiculous part of these arguments (and I agree that they are political) is that both sides seem to agree with the premise that there is one right way to teach reading, instead of accepting the fact that different kids learn in different ways ....

Not only do they forget that children learn in different ways, but also that teachers are effective teaching in different ways as well. If both camps agree on one thing, it's that individual teachers should not be able to determine for themselves the best methods of teaching their own classes.

I try to be as pragmatic as possible about child development and educational methodology, and I'm profoundly suspicious of false choices. Why not have a big healthy dose of structured phonics instruction, lots of reading out loud, some controlled phonics readers, and then quickly move on to "real literature"? There is no reason why it has to be either/or, particularly since learning to read should be the main business of the first years of school, so there's nothing else more important.

The trouble is that we're locked into an extreme debate by people who have professional reputations based on one system of learning and by people who have come to hate each other feverishly.

With kids from prosperous families, we have absolutely no idea what is the deciding factor in their academic success. Is it school? Is it mom and dad reading to them? Is it mom and dad buying and using Hooked on Phonics or Teach Your Child to Read in 100 lessons? Is it mom and dad's good example in reading a lot for work and personal pleasure? Is it the tutor? Is it the Kumon worksheets? There are potentially dozens of confounding factors, and who knows which is the deciding one. With poor children, I would think that it is considerably simpler to figure out what is working, because there aren't as many outside academic inputs. In fact, school might be the only input.

I have no expertise in language learning. Although I did my whole formal education under an "English" environment - which is a second language to me, I can say I am NOT a proficient reader/writer!

I see language as a socially negotiated symbol systems so that we can meaningfully participate in our community. Every generation develops its own slang and culture. The problem of language learning is the problem of defining the community you want the students to participate. Literature, indeed any written information, is part of the collective "intelligence" of human race. Whether it is useful for one depends on how one wants to participate in the community. [My view was developed in this series of posts.]

I recall Mary Noggle's way of teaching "the Scarlet's Letter". Immersing the students in the era as described in the literature, students associated with the "virtual community" and communicated in the appropriate language at that era. Bingo!

Random Walk in Learning

Those with keen eyes and having been visiting my blog will notice that I have made a slight change in the title of this blog: from "Random Walk in eLearning" to " Random Walk in Learning". This small change reflects a BIG change in my way of looking at technology and learning.

I have gone through several cycles in my career. I started as a Physics teacher, mainly reciting all the information I have from the textbook to the students. I then got a teacher-training and specialised in "learning technology". At that time, it was all about audio recording, overhead projectors, slides and so on. I have been as the learning technology coordinator for the schools where I served ever since - until the last day of job.

At the meantime, I became more and more interested in motivating students to learn rather than dealing with the subject matter itself. At one point, I even stopped a lesson when all the students were motivated and waiting for me to deliver the content. I saw those eager eyes looking at me, begging to know the answer. I stopped and asked them to find that out themselves from the textbook! (How cruel I was!) The class was in dead silence. Then someone opened the textbook and started reading. Gradually, these children were all reading. Then a hand went up. I allowed him to ask me a question which he could not understand just by reading. I asked him to come forward to the bench and explained in details to him. I can still see the joy of this young fellow with that special treatment. Then more hands came up. The class had just found out that they COULD ask me question to get individual attention. I knew I was in trouble! It would not be possible to explain to 45 kids one by one!

I came up with a scheme. The students were allowed to discuss while I was not talking to the whole class. If they had any question, they asked their friends first. If three of them have the same problem, they could ask me!

OK, that would have reduced the number from 45 to 15. But it would be still too much for me. I also found out that they did not have the same kind problem at the same time. Some would ask a question on one aspect. But other would ask a question on another aspect, or from another angle. There were still too many questions to answer.

I came up with another scheme. I would only answer a question only once. I used a notebook to record who asked what questions. When another group came and asked me a similar question, I would refer them to the students who had got an answer from me. I called this scheme: "First to question, first hand answer. Second to question, second hand answer". One unexpected side effect of the scheme was that as the first hand group was questioned, they needed to produce the answer. This answering of the questions to another group itself helped them to understand better. It was a win-win situation.

This was my first cycle. I started as information shoveller to a guide, a helper and an organiser.

Fast forward to the second half of my life.

I started working on eLearning as a technical specialist to EdNA dealing mainly with issues related to resource discovery, learning metadata standards and so on.

Fast forward to the last couple of months.

I am now coming to say that resources, technologies are NOT the focus of our effort to help people learn. Resources are information. We use them when we need them. The focus is NOT to memorise all the information. Technology is tool. We should use technology to help learning. Technology is NOT the focus.

To reflect this significant change, I decided to take out the "e" in my blog title.

From now on, I will random walk in learning and bring you whatever I encountered in my journey - including of course, how technology has helped people learnt!

A different approach to school

by Karyn Romeis

I came across this post [my post: What if everything we think about school is wrong?] via Stephen Downes's OLDaily. Watching the video, I found myself thinking, as my kids would put it, "Just no!"

When I put up the post, I did not make much comment except saying that

The kids in the film are articulate, intelligent and well informed. If all students graduating from Fairhaven School are like them, I don't have problem sending my child there.

When Stephen picked up my post, his comment was

"A wild animal, as opposed to a caged animal, knows chaos and can adapt to it." These words conclude this video, well worth watching, about Fairhaven, an alternative democratic school. A lot of my own thoughts are captured here. For example, "Learning is what happens when you're doing something else." And I like the thoughts, expressed here, about how being forced to learn leads you to allow yourself to be forced into other things later in life. Albert Ip also quotes some comments - this one struck me: "The world is not run by democratic process, and you usually CAN'T do what you want to do..." Well, yes, most of the world is undemocratic. But this is the problem. And we will not counter this by silently acquiescing to authoritarianism, either in our schools or in our lives.

Karyn did not agree:

So I'm going to have to continue to differ from Stephen on this one, although I'm sure if we had to have a debate about it he'd open a can of whup-ass on me.

Karyn based her view on three points:

parents and teachers have a greater breadth of experience and a perspective that only time and, well, experience can provide. I acknowledge that these are going to be flawed adults, but as far as possible, they should have a child's best interests at heart. From this vantage point, surely they are better positioned to know what a child will need to know in order to tackle what experience has told them life is likely to have in store?

I encountered a school run on similar lines several years ago, and met several of its existing and past students. They generally seemed inadequately prepared for "real life". Their academic results were mediocre, their sporting ability was all but non-existent, they lacked drive and ambition. They seemed kind of, well, woolly - a bit granola-and-birkenstocks-and-we-are-one.

This kind of harks back to Jeff Utecht's post about people not knowing what they don't know (although admittedly he was talking about teachers, but I think the principle holds). If they don't know what they don't know, how do they know what knowledge will prove beneficial?

So Karyn believed that the curriculum (what needs to be learnt) is better dictated by adults who know better. Her objection is also based on some interactions with some students who have gone through the "same" process. Finally, reflecting on the first point again, people just don't know what they don't know.

Upon reading this, I did a bit more research into Fairhaven school. This is the school website which points to an article in Washington Post. Here I found some interesting details about the school.

Class is small, if we may even call it a class for obvious reason. However, it seems that those attended the class learnt a lot in the same time compared with traditional classes. Some others are as quotes from Washington Post's article:

Students come and go when they want. The only requirement is to spend at least five hours at school between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Many roll in after 9 a.m., some close to noon. Those who fail to sign in pay a 50-cent fine.
[snip]
Meetings are central to a school without a principal or headmaster. A student judicial committee convenes daily to enforce a thick rule book established collectively by students and staff.
[snip]
Fairhaven relies on the threat of boredom to spur student creativity.

Let me just bring myself back couples of hundred years. I don't believe the concept of curriculum existed then. Education was for the privileged only. I don't believe the teacher (if I may still use the term) would have much power over the students. Is that pretty much the same in Fairhaven where students are given the power to determine the outcome for themselves?

Back to Karyn's concern, first I don't agree that her experience with some other students who were "educated" on similar lines is a valid reason here. Obviously, Fairhaven has rules, just not the traditional ones! As Washington Post puts it: "A student judicial committee convenes daily to enforce a thick rule book established collectively by students and staff." which sounds very much similar to current western systems which depend on previous cases.

We have our best interest in our children, so obviously we want to give them the best we can. However, I also see from my own daughter that during the teenage years, she is learning to be independent and is rebelling against MY ORDER! She knows that I have the best intention for her, but she just does not want to do it my way and wants to discover for herself. Is Fairhaven's way better? I would say it depends - depends on the child!

Our children do not know what they don't know. We don't know what they will face in the future as well. In a way, as an adult, I am equally uncertain about what kind of skill will best equip my daughter to face the new challenge when she becomes as adult. Unknown is very scary. May be that's why I let the days go by without really doing anything to help prepare my own daughter. I tried and only managed to send her to the "best" school I can find for her. As I said before, I don't know whether I am making the right decision for her!

Adults have experience which is built by mistakes we made, or stories about mistakes other have made. One of the thing a school can do, at least, is to provide a "safe" environment for our children to make non-life threatening mistakes which can became their experience. May be Fairhaven is really the school I want to send my daughter to.

Minnesota - bottom in tech; tops in education?

by Doug Johnson

Here are the points I agree with Doug:

technology use has NEVER been about increasing test scores

It's not about who has the most tech toys winning; it's about who has the best prepared students.

I have emphasis lately that technology is a tool. It is the way of using the tool that determines success, not the tool itself.

If education means the ability to get more information, those with better information technology and better bandwidth will win. BUT, it is not about the quantity of information you can put your hand on, it is about UNDERSTANDING the information and being able to use the information to solve real problems. Having more information may help. But having information is far from a sufficient condition of being able to solve a problem.

Learning, or education, is about preparing students to participate in meaningful life in the society. It is NOT about standardised test scores!

On " Eleven Quotes in Honor of Inertia"

When I first read the post by Richard Hake in IFETS-DISCUSS, I was enlightened by the immerse wisdom embedded in the quotes. Hence I asked Richard's permission to repost it here.

Change is difficult and risky. But, every now and then we see disruptive changes. Harvesting and delivery of ice blocks was replaced by refrigerators. Typists as a job disappeared. Film-based photography is being replaced by digital photography. Plastic records replaced by CD which will be replaced by MP3. Traditional telephone will be replaced by Voice Over IP such as Skype. The list goes on.

Clayton Christensen talked about how businesses may be disrupted by new technology. May be there are lessons we can learn from business in implementing changes in education.

Eleven Quotes in Honor of Inertia

by Richard Hake [reposted here with permission]

ABSTRACT: I give eleven quotes, led by those of John Dewey & William James, in honor of THE INERTIA OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM and stimulated by the backlash of parents and teachers to the implementation of Leon Lederman's (2001) "Physics First" in the San Diego schools, as reported by Wall Street Journal reporter Rob Tomsho.

1. John Dewey addressed a root cause of human inertia
   
   Man is not logical and his intellectual history is a record of mental reserves and compromises. He hangs on to what he can in his old beliefs even when he is compelled to surrender their logical basis.
   John Dewey (1922/2005)


2. William James discussed the inertia of human habits
   
   When the structure has yielded [to outward forces or inward tensions], THE SAME INERTIA BECOMES A CONDITION OF ITS COMPARATIVE PERMANENCE IN THE NEW FORM, and of the new habits the body then manifests. *Plasticity*, then, in the wide sense of the word, means the possession of a structure weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once. Each relatively stable phase of equilibrium in such a structure is marked by what we may call a new set of habits. Organic matter, especially nervous tissue, seems endowed with a very extraordinary degree of plasticity of this sort; so that we may without hesitation lay down as our first proposition the following, that *the phenomena of habit in living beings are due to the plasticity of the organic materials of which their bodies are composed.*
   William James (1890)


3. MIT's rocket scientist John Belcher (2006), in his PhysLrnR post of 16 Apr 2006
   
   Here is my favorite quote, which is pertinent . . . [to the problems of implementing Leon Lederman's (2001) "Physics First" in the San Diego schools]:
   

   And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain of success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience with them. Thus it happens that whenever those who are hostile have the opportunity to attack they do it like partisans, whilst the others defend lukewarmly....
   Niccolo Machiavelli (1513)



4. Not to be outdone, Cambridge don Sanjoy Mahajan (2006), in his PhysLrnR post of 18 Apr 2006
   
   Another favorite quote on those lines, relevant for reformers and radicals of all varieties:
   Principle of the Dangerous Precedent:

   You should not now do an admittedly right action for fear you, or your equally timid successors, should not have the courage to do right in some future case, which, ex hypothesi, is essentially different, but superficially resembles the present one. Every public action which is not customary, either is wrong, or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time.
   Francis Mcdonald Cornford (1908/1949)



5. And another priceless Cornford quote, especially valuable for the young would-be educational reformer:
   
   I shall take it that you are in the first flush of ambition and just beginning to make yourself disagreeable. You think (do you not?) that you have only to state a reasonable case, and people must listen to reason and act upon it at once. It is just this conviction that makes you so unpleasant. There is little hope of dissuading you; but has it occurred to you that nothing is ever done until every one is convinced that it ought to be done, and has been convinced for so long that it is now time to do something else? And are you not aware that conviction has never been produced by an appeal to reason which only makes people uncomfortable? If you want to move them, you must address your arguments to prejudice and the political motive, which I will presently describe.
   Francis Mcdonald Cornford (1908/1949)


6. On 18 Apr 2006 07:28:44-0400 John Belcher, in response to Mahajan (2006) presented a quote from Garvin (2003), contained in "Re: Student resistance to changes in professional education practice"
   
   Christopher Columbus Langdell, the pioneer of the case method, attended Harvard Law School from 1851 to 1854 - twice the usual term of study. He spent his extra time as a research assistant and librarian, holed up in the school's library reading legal decisions and developing an encyclopedic knowledge of court cases.
   [snip]
   In his course on contracts, he insisted that students read only original sources-cases-and draw their own conclusions. To assist them, he assembled a set of cases and published them, with only a brief two-page introduction.
   [snip]
   Inducing general principles from a small selection of cases was a challenging task, and students were unlikely to succeed without help. To guide them, Langdell developed through trial and error what is now called THE SOCRATIC METHOD: AN INTERROGATORY STYLE IN WHICH INSTRUCTORS QUESTION STUDENTS CLOSELY ABOUT THE FACTS OF THE CASE, THE POINTS AT ISSUE, JUDICIAL REASONING, UNDERLYING DOCTRINES AND PRINCIPLES, AND COMPARISONS WITH OTHER CASES. Students prepare for class knowing that they will have to do more than simply parrot back material they have memorized from lectures or textbooks; they will have to present their own interpretations and analysis, and face detailed follow-up questions from the instructor.
   
   Langdell's innovations initially met with enormous resistance. MANY STUDENTS WERE OUTRAGED (my CAPS). During the first three years of his administration, as word spread of Harvard's new approach to legal education, enrollment at the school dropped from 165 to 117 students, leading Boston University to start a law school of its own. ALUMNI WERE IN OPEN REVOLT.
   David Garvin (2003)


7. But in this celebration of inertia one should not overlook the Cornfordian "Tactics for Change" by MIT's Halfman et al. (1977):
   
   "Difficulties of Change: . . . 9. The PRIMA FACIE AFFRONT: Whereas I have spent a significant fraction of my professional life perfecting my lectures and otherwise investing conscientiously in the status quo, therefore to suggest an alternative is, by definition, to attack me."
   Robert Halfman, Margaret MacVicart, W.T. Martin, Edwin Taylor, and Jerrold Zacharias (1977).


8. And former presidents of Universities [who find it "harder to move the faculty than a graveyard"(Richard Cyert), both hard because "in neither case can you expect much help from the inhabitants" (American Physical Society PS president John Hopfield as quoted by Sanjoy Mahajan)] speak from bitter experience. Cyert, former president of Carnegie Mellon University complained:
   
   The academic area is one of the most difficult areas to change in our society. We continue to use the same methods of instruction, particularly lectures, that have been used for hundreds of years. Little scientific research is done to test new approaches, and little systematic attention is given to the development of new methods. Universities that study many aspects of the world ignore the educational function in which they are engaging and from which a large part of their revenues are earned.
   Cyert in Tuma & Reif (1980)


9. Also voicing his frustration with recalcitrant faculty is James Duderstadt, former president of the University of Michigan, who
   opined:
   
   "Few faculty members have any awareness of the expanding knowledge about learning from psychology and cognitive science. Almost no one in the academy has mastered or used this knowledge base. One of my colleagues observed that if doctors used science the way college teachers do, they would still be trying to heal with leeches."
   


10. And then there's the famous quote that currently seems to be on the tip of everyone's tongue:
    
    Lesson #13: THE MONUMENTAL INERTIA OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM MAY THWART LONG-TERM NATIONAL REFORM: The glacial inertia of the nearly immovable U.S. educational system is not well understood. A recent issue of Daedalus (1998) contains essays by researchers in education and by historians of more rapidly developing institutions such as power systems, communications, health care, and agriculture. The issue was intended to help answer a challenge posed by physics Nobelist Kenneth Wilson: "If other major American 'systems' have so effectively demonstrated the ability to change, why has the education 'system' been so singularly resistant to change? What might the lessons learned from other systems' efforts to adapt and evolve have to teach us about bringing about change - successful change - in America's schools?" As far as I know, no definitive answer has yet been forthcoming.
    Hake (2002)


11. In conclusion, lest all hope for change be abandoned, it is encouraging to recall the words of Max Planck:
    
    An important scientific innovation. . .[IMO, "unorthodox idea" could be substituted for "scientific innovation] . . . rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that ITS OPPONENTS GRADUALLY DIE OUT and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the young."
    Max Planck (1936)

REFERENCES
Belcher, J. 2006. "Re: WSJ on Active Physics," PhysLrnR post of 16 Apr 2006 14:20:28-0400; online. One must subscribe to PhysLnrR to access its archives, but it takes only a few minutes to subscribe by following the simple directions.

Cornford, F.M. 1908/1949. "Microcosmographia Academica - Being A Guide for the Young Academic Politician" (Bowes & Bowes, Cambridge, 4th ed.). Online in HTML courtesy Ian Utting; and as a 148kB pdf, courtesy Mark Titchener. First published in 1908, but as current today as it was then.

Cornford's "advertisement" reads: If you are young, do not read this book; it is not fit for you; If you are old, throw it away; you have nothing to learn from it; If you are unambitious, light the fire with it; you do not need its guidance. But, if you are neither less than twenty-five years old, nor more than thirty; And if you are ambitious withal, and your spirit hankers after academic politics; Read, and may your soul (if you have a soul) find mercy!

Cornford's "warning" reads: "Any one of us might say, that although in words he is not able to meet you at each step of the argument, he sees as a fact that academic persons, when they carry on study, not only in youth as a part of education, but as the pursuit of their maturer years, most of them become decidedly queer, not to say rotten; and that those who may be considered the best of them are made useless to the world by the very study which you extol." "Well, do you think that those who say so are wrong?" "I cannot tell, he replied; but I should like to know what is your opinion?" "Hear my answer; I am of opinion that they are quite right." PLATO, Republic VI

Daedalus. 1998. "Education yesterday, education tomorrow." Daedalus 127(4). The online description, formerly at http://daedalus.amacad.org/inprint.html has rotted and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, former publishers of Daedalus, have seen fit to list only the *titles* of past issues at http://www.amacad.org/publications/back_issues.aspx. The MIT press, current publishers of Daedalus, list at http://www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/daed only issues back to 1 September 2003 :-(.

Dewey, J. 1922. "Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology," online at Brock University (Canada). The quote is in the middle of the second paragraph of Section VI "The Nature of Aims,"" in Part III "The Place of Intelligence in Conduct." I thank Tania Smith for this reference. For other online Dewey resources see A certain logic: Selected Works of John Dewey, a Mead Project website at Brock University with a nice photo of John Dewey and George Herbert Mead. For a print copy of "Human Nature and Conduct . . ." see Dewey (2005).

Dewey, J. 2005. "Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology." Kessinger Publishing. First published in 1922 by by Henry Holt & Co., New York, and G. Allen & Unwin, London, according to the bibliography in Schilpp & Hahn (1989). I thank Tim Roberts for this reference. Amazon.com information at http://tinyurl.com/oudr4. Note the "Search inside another edition of this book" feature.

Duderstadt, J.J. 2000. "A University for the 21st Century" (Univ. of Michigan Press); for a description.

Green, C. 2006. "Classics in the History of Psychology"; online at "Celebrating Nine Years and Over 12 Million Hits!"

Garvin, D.A. 2003. "Making the Case: Professional education for the world of practice" Harvard Magazine, September/October; online. Thanks to MIT's Lori Breslow and John Belcher for bringing this article to my attention, and to Sanjoy Mahajan for providing the undated link.

Green, C. 2006. "Classics in the History of Psychology"; online . "Celebrating Nine Years and Over 12 Million Hits!"

Hake, R.R. 2002. "Lessons from the physics education reform effort," Ecology and Society 5(2): 28; online. Ecology and Society (formerly Conservation Ecology) is a free online "peer-reviewed journal of integrative science and fundamental policy research" with about 11,000 subscribers in about 108 countries.

Hake, R.R. 2004a. " Re: The Inertia of the Educational System," online. Post of 2 Oct 2004 17:34:07-0700 to AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-J, AERA-K, AERA-L, ASSESS, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, Physhare, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, POD, RUME, & STLHE-L.

Hake, R.R. 2004b. "Re: Student resistance to changes in professional education practice," online. Post of 1 Oct 2004 12:30:24-0700 to AERA-I, AERA-J, AP-Physics, ASSESS, Dr-Ed, EvalTalk, PBL, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, POD, and STLHE-L.

Hake, R.R. 2006. "Re: WSJ on Active Physics," online. Post of 14 Apr 2006 to AERA-H, AERA-K, AERA-L, AP-Physics, ARN-L, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, Physhare, and POD.

Halfman, R., M.L.A. MacVicar, W.T. Martin, E.F. Taylor, & J.R. Zacharias. 1977. "Tactics for Change." MIT Occasional Paper No. 11. online. Thanks to John Belcher for placing this gem on the web.

James, W. 1890. "The Principles of Psychology," CHAPTER IV "Habit," online. This is in Christopher Green's (2006) valuable "Classics in the History of Psychology."

Johnson, G. 1994. "University Politics : F. M. Cornford's Cambridge and his Advice to the Young Academic Politician ." Cambridge University Press. Amazon.com information. Note the "Search inside this book feature. I thank Sanjoy Mahajan for this reference.

Lederman, L. 2001. "Revolution in Science Education: Put Physics First." Physics Today 54(9): 11-12; online: "Laboratory work must be inquiry dominated (the opposite of cookbook labs) and designed to illuminate concepts. . . . The three-year sequence must include a lot of process in addition to content. How does science work? How did we discover some of these things? Why is science such a universal culture? How do the traits of skepticism, curiosity, openness to new ideas, and the joy of discovering the beauty of nature affect the process of science? Long after all the formulas, Latin words, and theories are forgotten, the process will be remembered. The goal of teachers using the new curriculum would be to produce high-school graduates who will be comfortable with a scientific way of thinking."

Machiavelli, N. 1513. The various modern versions listed by Amazon.com.

Mahajan, S. 2006. "Re: WSJ on Active Physics," PhysLrnR post of 18 Apr 2006 01:29:31 +0100; online.

Planck, M. 1936. "The Philosophy of Physics." W.W. Norton. See also Planck (1959)

Planck, M. 1959. "Where is science going? The universe in the light of modern physics; The philosophy of physics" (Greenwich editions). Meridian Books.

Schilpp, P.A. & L.E. Hahn. 1989. "The Philosophy of John Dewey." Southern Illinois University.

Tomsho, R. 2006. "Textbook Battle: Top High Schools Fight New Science As Overly Simple; San Diego's Physics Overhaul Makes Classes Accessible, Spurs Parental Backlash; Test Scores Barely Budge," Wall Street Journal, 13 April; freely online for only about a week. For a more permanently available copy see Mahajan (2006).

Tuma, D.T. & F. Reif, eds. 1980. "Problem Solving and Education: Issues in Teaching and Research." Lawrence Erlbaum.

It’s Not a Textbook World

by David Warlick

one of the most impressive aspects of Web 2.0 is the aggregator concept, and our ability to mix and remix content

He continued to quote an example:

...[an] assignment where students used their word processors to write a two-page letter on drug-abuse and other software to produce slides for a class presentation.

They were instructed to visit a variety of anti-drug Web sites to get help for their letter and presentation.

The fundamental difference between this and a traditional version of the assignment, has less to do with the presence of technology, and more to do with the conspicuous absence of a textbook. Rather than getting their content exclusively from a packaged information product, designed to make learning slick and easy, students are asked to visit a variety of information sources, that, hopefully, do not agree on every aspect of the topic. It puts more responsibility of learning, on the shoulders of the learner, to make some decisions, recognize that there is more than one side, more than one answer, and more than one perspective. [my emphasis in bold]

Now, that's Web 2.0 concept in school. It is NOT the wiki, the blog or another new found technology. It is about students interact with information, own their learning process AND the change of attitude by the adults responsible for their learning to recognise that learning is a process, not just absorbing information!

Converting cases to role play simulation

Ric Canale (University of Melbourne) has done a narrated powerpoint presentation talking about his experience in converting a Harvard Business Online's case study into a Fablusi online role play simulation. Here is the link.
[this link should be valid for 6 months.]

Physics demo

This is a good demonstration of surface tension.


As the balloon is bursted, water which stick to the surface of the balloon is ejected. The rest of the water is held by the surface tension to maintain its spherical shape.

Discussions at ITForum and evaluatingelearning

Two similar threads are happening at ITForum and evaluatingelearninggroups which share a very similar theme.

In ITForum, Karen asked on behalf of a faculty member:

Could you please point me to references dealing with the pedagogical efficacy of on-line programs and to a few first class institutions that offer all on-line programs (not necessarily restricted to business)? My concern is not with service to students, flexibility, advantage to faculty -- I think those points are obvious. My concern is with the caliber of the student's educational experience, the impact on the faculty-student relationship (that EMU is so proud of), the extent of academic dishonesty, the actual damage to the integrity of degrees due to academic dishonesty, and the question of "credentialling" versus graduate education.

In evaluatingelearning, Anthea asked

As part of my organization's internal effort to understand how to translate a lot of our classroom content to online content, a hypothesis has emerged that "Content can be or should be delivered via asynchronous e-learning in less time than it would be delivered via classroom instruction" which suggests that for example a day of classroom time (8 hours) can be or should be delivered asynchronously in less than 8 hours (even assuming that we would break the 8 hours of content into 30 minute chunks).
...
I've read some reports and heard anecdotal evidence that suggest than we should think about efficiencies of 40%-50% (i.e., halve the time spent in the classroom when developing self-paced courses) but not enough to have a definite point of view. I would also imagine that a number of factors including design (types of exercises, simulations) and pace of each learner will affect the amount of time taken to complete an asynchronous course.

How do some of you think about this issue? Do you have any research or any advice on how we should think about converting a certain number of hours of classroom training into asynchronous training.

Both threads attracted active discussions showing the interest people have on this issue.

I stated my position in the ITForum thread with this post:

Are all online programs pedagogical sound? No.

Is there properly designed online program which is pedagogical sound? Yes, definitely.

Is a simple conversion of a traditional face to face program to online a good way for online program? No.

Does online program offer advantages to students, adult students in particular? Yes, obviously because these students can structure their study time around daily routines for asynchronously delivered program, save travel time for synchronously delivered program. But I don't see a compelling reason to deliver synchronous online program!

Is online program more efficient in terms of delivering learning outcomes? Yes, when properly designed. Asynchronous program gives amber time for students to research, reflect and response to learning activities.

Please, a white board, an overhead projector, a mic in a lecture hall, a discussion forum or email ARE tools. It is the way one use the tool(s) which determines the success of any program. If one's only tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails. For successful implementation of online program, familarize oneself with tools.

Some tools claim to be pedagogical independent - which is not true. Other claim to implement specific pedagogy (e.g. online role play simulation by http://www.fablusi.com). The question should be to find a tool which one is comfortable with and use the tool well.

We have helped many people to use fablusi online role play in many courses in a wide range of subjects. Some of the simulations are available as demo in http://www.simplay.net Please have a look and I will welcome questions about the pedagogy behind online role play simulation.

Rod Sims commented:

First, for those of us who have been with ITFORUM since its inception and with Computers and Education for much longer, these questions seem to appear which each new generation of technology:

The pedagogical efficacy of Computer-Assisted Instruction
The pedagogical efficacy of Hypermedia
The pedagogical efficacy of Multimedia
The pedagogical efficacy of Online Programs

And more recently …

The pedagogical efficacy of Blogs and Wikis
The pedagogical efficacy of Massively Multiplayer Online Learning
The pedagogical efficacy of Mobile Learning

The question is not whether a particular technology is pedagogically effective, but whether the pedagogical design has integrated the technology appropriately and that the users of the program are very clear as to their role and expectations within that program.

“Online” is not the issue here … pedagogy is.
[snip][my emphasis]

Rod's point of view is the other side of the coin from mine. (But a solid has must than two sides, so I put forward:)

...the interaction of tool and creations....With the coming of new technology, we should start exploring new pedagogical designs. [added emphasis for Random Walk]

and followed with an example of the pedagogical design that I have been actively promoting:

Based on the concept of role play, which all of us did when we were young, coupled with the asynchronous nature of internet-based communication, we have built a role play simulation platform (both the generator and the delivery). Fablusi role play simulation platform models human relationships, enables designers to create scenario and compelling kick-start episode, integrates tasks, various form of communication into a virtual space. Learners can explore, experience, take risks, try out new strategies and learn by doing.

Those who are interested are welcome to go to our website http://www.fablusi.com and download a design worksheet. The design worksheet will be useful not only for designing online role play. It should be useful for designing face to face role play as well.

You can see some of the hundreds of delivered simulation at http://www.simplay.net. The samples at simplay are simulations which has been delivered to groups of real learners. Thanks to the designers that they are available as sample/demos. To really enjoy the simulation, you need to form groups to play. After all, role play is a co-operative, collaborative learning activity.

For academic papers on the use of online role play simulation, please go to http://www.roleplaysim.org/papers/ . http://learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/guides/info/G1/index.htm is a guide to design online role play with different levels of technology uses.

Those in evaluatingelearning are more concerned in the actual times (hours) and my view is reflected in this post:

Can I ask where you get the data that said there is a 40-50% efficiency in time of delivery? I would be interested. My own experience suggests otherwise!

For "reading" type of course material, naturally we read (as in reading text) faster than any teacher can reasonable read (as in speaking out the content).

However, the most "time consuming" part of any learning process is the time the students need to spend with the content. This is dependent on person rather than on technology.

For asynchronous discussion forum, you have to allow time for students to log in (afterall they can log in at any time) and response to questions. So a simple question, in face to face would take a few minutes to get a response, may have to wait for days in order to allow for different log in times.

For online chat, the efficiency is *very* low. I personally hate online real time chat - too many distraction and very ineffective!

What other thinks?

Ajay Singh came in and provided this metrics:

Depending on the type of content that you are trying to convert to elearning from classroom, the following metrics may hold.

1. If the content is application training (software application training), the reduction is dramatic, almost 60-70%. This is due to the fact that all the setup time, the time required to login, machines not working, database crashing etc. is removed and software is taught as simulation only. This can be followed by a classroom session on "challenges" or specific issues for effectiveness
2. If the content is "Process learning" it again reduces the time by almost 30-45%
3. If the content is hard training (machine training, teaching someone to drive) etc. the reduction in training time is almost nil and in any case it is in effective as well. No one can learn driving by reading about it.
4. Soft skills are also reduced by almost 40-50%

On the other end of the spectrum, I can give my own information. In terms of design time required to deliver online role play simulations (which I have concrete data), when the concept has been mapped out (go to http://www.fablusi.com and download a design worksheet to work out a concept for your course), it would take about 1 day for Roni or myself to cut and paste into our Fablusi engine. This will create an online role play simulation for any group-size to experience your design from 3 weeks to any duration as you deem fit. However, it must be noted that, like any engaging online learning activities, we need to moderate the simulation. Roni has moderated 160-learner simulation based on a previous version of Fablusi single-handedly over the duration of the simulation - rough job!

---
These two discussion threads have shown that eLearning has been accepted generally. But it is a still a long way before we can make it a life-changing design. It is still early stage.

OLDaily is back

I have received and read with delight the second posting from Stephen Downes. So he must have come out of his hibernation. Hurray!

The last remaining building block for free online courses

There is free hosting for media - Ourmedia.org provides you with free bandwidth to publish and store video, audio and other media that you created. But you will need a free Internet Archive account first.

Easier ways to share

photos (and graphic images) is flickr.com

videos is myTube.com

There are free blog hosting, such as blogger.com

There are free content too.

Open Course Ware from MIT which is a large-scale, Web-based publication of the educational materials from the MIT faculty’s courses. This unique initiative enables the open sharing of the MIT faculty’s teaching materials with educators, enrolled students, and self-learners around the world. MIT OCW provides users with open access to the syllabi, lecture notes, course calendars, problem sets and solutions, exams, reading lists, even a selection of video lectures, from 1,100 MIT courses representing 34 academic disciplines and all five of MIT’s schools..

Wikibooks is a collection of free, open-content textbooks that you can edit. They have 14,305 book modules in over 1000 books when I visited their site today.

Yahoo groups are free for everyone to create groups which support discussions.

What I am trying to do here is to show that *almost* all the technological building blocks to deliver online learning program are available free NOW, including *content*. Most of these are designed for open and informal use.

If teachers want to run courses online, the final piece of building block would be a student management system - yes, there are open source LMS e.g. moodle, but there is yet free hosted student management services.

If there is any venture capitalist interested in putting this last piece in place, please contact me.

What is the product being sold at...?

Here is a short quiz for you:

1. What is the product being sold at a cinema?
A. Movie
B. Entertainment

Hint: see BoingBoing

2. What is the product being sold at a school?
A. Knowledge
B. Experience

What do you do if you cannot answer a question?

Teachers sometimes face a difficult question. What should we do?

Here is an example of what NOT to do....


I think the correct response should be seriously acknowledge the depth of the questions, promise to come back with an intelligent answer and KEEP the promise.

What if everything we think about school is wrong?

via BoingBoing



This is a trailer and worth the time to watch.

Voices from the New American Schoolhouse explores life outside the usual educational box. Narrated exclusively by students, the film chronicles life and learning at the Fairhaven School in Upper Marlboro, MD which practices an undiluted form of freedom and democracy that turns mainstream education theory on its head. Filmmaker Danny Mydlack enjoyed unrestricted access over a two-year period to produce this candid and unblinking encounter with kid-powered learning. This movie is for anyone who ever went to school and imagined something better.

The kids in the film are articulate, intelligent and well informed. If all students graduating from Fairhaven School are like them, I don't have problem sending my child there.

Some comments from theTube are worth noting as well.

The problem with this model is that it sets up expectations that the world will not be able to meet. The world is not run by democratic process, and you usually CAN'T do what you want to do--it is VITAL that you give yourself permission to do something you don't want. It does not reflect the way grownups have to live each day. It is a merely a parent's fantasy about the way they wished the world worked for their kids. And the kids deserve more than living in their parents' imaginations.

You certainly seem to make sense when you put it that way. Problem with your logic is that it doesn't reflect reality. For example, I believe you arrived here via boingboing's link, a self-avowed 'free-schooler' (a pretty successful, real-world professional if I ever saw one.)

...while the world is not currently "run by democratic process" I think this is a step in the right direction. There is a similar debate in the business community right now about how well democratic management does for knowledge workers.

Are you suggesting that these children will be ill-prepared to deal with life's problems because they are taught democracy and learn, through their studies, that they are capable of doing whatever they want in life? I find that an odd position to hold.

and more....

Coming of Age: An Introduction to the New World Wide Web

Terry Freedman, an independent education consultant in London, coraled some pretty forward thinking educators, and me, to write a little something about Web 2.0. The contributors are listed below. I think that the project came out very well, and it’s free, as a downloaded PDF file.

I have a quick look at the 92-page pdf. It is mainly about the use of blog in education, some chapters on podcast, vidoecast and a discussion of wiki. While there are plenty of interesting ideas, most would be quite familiar with people constantly reading blogs.

Blogs, podcast, videocast are still publishing mode - albeit allowing more people to publish including students. There is no inherent structure or requirement to collaborate.

Wiki is a document-focus collaboration. The focus is on the collaborative construction of a wiki-page which, of course, is never final and will continue to be edited by future reader/editor.

I still think learning is a PROCESS in which students' active participation is essential. Discussion forum seems to at least imply active participation by students in response to discussions posted by the moderator. Blog, podcast and videocast do not have this implicit requirement.

Technology is TOOL. If you ever use only one tool, every problem will be a nail (if your tool is a hammer).

Blog, podcast, videocast and wiki are technological tools. I hope the new world wide web for education is more than just these.

Wish list of an ideal technical working environment

Here is a wish list for information worker like me.

Screen estate
Current situation: I am using two monitors attached to my laptop running XP, another monitor for my miniMac and a fourth one connected to Ubuntu.
Improvement I would like: I can move documents between my two monitors on XP quite easily, but need to go through the network if I want to move documents between system. [status: clumsy yes] --> I would like to have clip board ACROSS computer so that I can cut and paste a selection from one document in one system to another. [status: not yet]--> one set of keyboard and mouse for all three systems. [status: use ]
Reason: We have limited short-term memory. Our productivity will significantly increased by having information available within visual range. see also The Virtues of a Second Screen

Network Connectivity
Current situation: Work stations connected either via wireless or wired Ethernet. They are connected to my servers via wired Ethernet. I am also connected to Internet via two board band ISPs.
Improvement I would like: Auto-switching and load balancing between the ISPs. [status: solution existed - need my own IP address instead of those supplied by ISP in order to load balance and auto ISP switching] --> Higher connection speed [status: in progress]
Reason:ISPs in Australia are not reliable enough. I have had both connections down at the same time before! I am thinking of adding a connection to Internet via other means such as wireless board band.

Communication
Current situation: Voice over IP using skype, IM, web cam on my XP; landline and mobile to telephone network, a dedicated fax line
Improvement I would like: Integrated
Reason: If these are converged into one set, is would be more cost effective.

Power supply
Current situation: Servers with UPS protection up to 30 minutes, XP laptop with battery, no protection for miniMac and Ubuntu
Improvement I would like: UPS for all
Reason: :-)

Data backup
Current situation: manual if I can remember
Improvement I would like: automatic realtime off-site backup --> reduntant disks in all system
Reason: Backup is necessary, but human nature is just not the best fit for routine jobs like that.

Free web sites for everyone

If you have a Google account, e.g. a Gmail, you can create your own web presence by using Google pages. You have 100M storage but I don't see any programming support - not even the ability to modify the title in the header.

However, it does represent a space which students can use both for studies as well as for social.

Use more verbs

by Patti at 37 Days

By comparing the beginner text, Patti pointed out an important difference between how westerners and easterners developed the first words in our first language. Westerners focus on nouns whereas Chinese (as an example of easterners) focus on verbs.

As Nisbett explains, in China it’s “not individual action but relationships between people that seem important to convey in a child’s first encounter with the printed word.” While we tend to say “I am who I am,” our Asian friends may more likely make reference to social roles—“I am Lori’s friend.” We say “See Dick run;” they say “Dick loves Jane” (the Truth about Dick and Jane, at long last).

Here is a specific quote:

“Developmental psychologists Anne Fernald and Hiromi Morikawa went into the homes of Japanese and Americans having infants either six, twelve, or nineteen months old. They asked the mothers to clear away the toys from a play area and then they introduced several that they had brought with them—a stuffed dog and pig and a car and a truck. They asked the mothers to play with the toys with their babies as they normally would…American mothers used twice as many object labels as Japanese mothers (“piggie,” “doggie”) and Japanese mothers engaged in twice as many social routines of teaching politeness norms (empathy and greetings, for example). An American mother’s patter might go like this: ‘That’s a car. See the car? You like it? It’s got nice wheels.’ A Japanese mother might say: ‘Here! It’s a vroom vroom. I give it to you. Now give this to me. Yes! Thank you.’ American children are learning that the world is mostly a place with objects, Japanese children that the world is mostly about relationships.”

Patti pointed out that

Westerners grow up in a world of objects while Easterners grow up in a world of relationships.

The consequence is...

We own objects—like little Mary Ann and Junior with their roller skates or Jane with that fancy Mercedes—but maybe it’s not the words, the nouns, the things that matter. What if Mary Ann had helped Junior learn to roller skate, rather than just concentrate on her own skates? Would we spend so much time fighting over ownership—of skates, of oil, of countries—in this vast world of ours if we focused on verbs, not things?

Teachers, what do you think? Will you start teaching more verbs?

Instruction Design Or Learning Design

On 9th April, I posted the following message to ITForum (Instructional Design Forum):

I know this is an old topic.

Quoting from Carl Roger, Erica McWilliam argued that "formal education erred in focusing on the skills of the teacher, when it was the learner who ought to be the centre and focus of pedagogy".

I suggest the term "learning design" is used to describe the body of work that would come out from the shift in focus when pedagogy focus on the learner instead of the skill of the teacher. (see http://elearningrandomwalk.blogspot.com/2006/04/instruction-design-verse-learning.html)

This thread attracted 30 responses. On 13th April, I posted a summary:

this thread has been going on for a few days now. As I started it, may be I will do a summary of what and where we are heading in this discussion.

Quoting from Carl Roger, "formal education erred in focusing on the skills of the teacher, when it was the learner who ought to be the centre and focus of pedagogy". I asked for insight about using the term "learning design" to describe the body of work that would come out from the shift in focus when pedagogy focus on the learner instead of the skill of the teacher. (see http://elearningrandomwalk.blogspot.com/2006/04/instruction-design-verse-learning.html)

A number of members suggested great resources for us: Tonya B. Amankwatia suggested to look at Papert's contention that we placed more of an emphasis on teaching rather than on learning. and Murphy's work. Doug Holton suggested "learning sciences", which focuses on both student and teaching learning.

Maggie McPherson put it better than I can. Quoting from one of her colleague: "the term "instructional" has behaviourist connotations, and proposed that "educational systems design" could be used to reflect a more learner-centred approach."

This is still slightly different from the original idea I have.

(There is also a few exchanges related with "technology".)

I came back, throwing into the discussion about the role of curriculum (inspired by the keynote paper of the first issue of Journal of Learning Design). Contrasting the role of curriculum (or pre-defined learning objectives) with learning ecology thinking: "Most ID approaches start with identifying the needs, learning objectives and then proceed to determine the best approach to cater for the learning needs of the target learners." I also asked "how can we start from providing an ecology to ensure learners are empowered to grow and learn." if we can accept the challenge of shifting design process by NOT having the curriculum first.

"There is a growing body of research pointing to a quite different direction - in particular - the concept of fixed curriculum is being challenged. This is in a direct course of collision with most ID approaches. For example, John Seely Brown talks about "learning ecology" see http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/seelybrown/ (you can find more by googling). Others talk about community of practice or community of learning."

[No doubt there is a body of literature on this issue, which I don't have time to list.]

Phoenixziaco asked to clarify what we are talking and Tonya B. Amankwatia cited an excellent reference: "Instructional design is the systematic development of instruction using learning theory to enhance learning outcomes. It is the entire process of meeting learning needs, including: defining the problem or knowledge gap to be addressed; defining the audience to be served; identifying objectives and assessment strategies; selecting and sequencing content and learning activities; choosing the best way to deliver those materials; evaluating the instruction and revising as needed to increase effectiveness."

So my question of the role of curriculum was in sharp focus.

Yolanda Columbus suggested "Generative instructional strategies guide the students to knowledge. These strategies depend on the student to generate ideas. It puts the responsibility for learning back in the hands of the students. These strategies are and should be used with a definite goal in mind."

Curriculum still seems to be the horse in front.

Melinda Johansson joined with a very good point: "In many training environments, it is the party who pays for the training who defines the learning agenda."

Well said.

David Gibson picked up the question of "how can we start from providing an ecology" and suggested "legitimate peripheral participation" role for the learner - a vicarious learner! He also see the learning apprenticeship at the final stages of professional training than at the beginning (MD interns, induction year teachers, clerking for lawyers, etc.)

The question David has is " if the ecology doesn't have the latent opportunity for those outcomes-standards-objectives to be expressed, then the back-mapping will most likely not find those relationships. So this makes me wonder if some parts of current ID approaches are OK as a background and preparation for building a new kind of learning ecology space, but then need to be buried, hidden and forgotten in order to focus on engagement, fun, action and decisions of the learner in a social setting where the learner can "pick up knowledge" peripherally while watching, participating and attempting to join higher levels of expertise."

One of my concerns (on a boarder scope) is whether today's education can provide the skill for our next generation to new world we are entering. I quickly layout the developmental growth from birth to working life and noted that "curriculum" appears in only the formal learning stages. Pre-school learning is undoubtedly very important. So is the continual upskilling and education. [I am aware of Melinda Johansson's comment earlier - but a good example will be myself. I have no formal training in computer or information sciences, but I am now making a living out of a skill which I picked up without any curriculum guidance!]

I also pointed out the different goals people have while they are participating in learning communities etc.

(David Gibson unintentionally ??:=) touched one of my soft spot - games and simulation being a "stealth learning" - which resulted in a branch to this discussion thread, sorry!)

Mike Taylor reminded us not to confuse "the need for problem solving with a backlash against formal learning objectives". This resulted in a few exchange in discussion too.

At this point, I think we can agree that 1. this discussion is about "expanding the universe of what ID might be if it addressed the fuller range of knowledge". - citing David Gibson 2. the role of the formal ID is not being discredited. Formal education and employer-sponsored training are BIG in our field and ID has important role in designing courses.

After that summary, Claude Ostyn comments on "I need to reconcile (for myself at least who works with LMS, Learning objects, SCORM - instructivitic and also works with online role play, collaborative learning - constructivitic). ... How can these ALL fit together in a coherent framework?":

I think it is possible to fit them all into a coherent framework, but unfortunately that is not where the money (or the tenure track) happens to be. A coherent framework seems fairly straightforward, but the field is dominated by commercial and institutional players that can only grow or survive by fostering ever more complexity in both the framework and the technology.

So, my search will continue.

Democratization of fiction

BoingBoing pointed me to The Democratization of Entertainment:

conventional fiction media (prose, film, theater, TV and the rest) are essentially aristocratic in nature: the Artist creates, the audience consumes. Games, contrariwise, allow individual players to participate in the creation of their fictional experience. The developers still shape and constrain that experience, to be sure, but there is no experience without the active engagement of the player; the player may well do something with the construct that the developers had not anticipated; and the ultimate experience is a collaboration in which both sides participate, not something handed down from On High by the Great Artiste. It is, in other words, the antithesis of aristocratic; games are a way for everyman to participate in creating his or her own narrative experience. Games are a democratic artform for a democratic age.

One good example I can think of is SecondLife. The game provides a 3-D virtual environment whereby players can interact with other players via the avatar. What you do within the environment is very much up to the creativity of the players.

Fablusi roleplay simulation is another good example. Roni Linser and I have written about a similar concept:

Master Yoshi says: "12 spokes make a wheel but it is the space between them which makes it useful. A window is made of a frame but it is the empty space which makes it useful." Master Yoshi was a Zen master in the 13th century. What he teaches us is that 'emptiness' is useful. In the context of educational tools it leads us to an awareness of the utility of the space opened up within the structure of tools. It is precisely this which explains why Role Play Simulations (RPS) are so useful. It is because the structure frames a unique space for participants to interact and create a learning experience for themselves.

An empty space is an empty space. Players need a "purpose" to be in the space and a "compelling reason" to act. Suppose we are flying a virtual plane in a flight simulator (e.g. x-plane). It is dull and no fun. Add a challenge, such as going from one place to another. OK, that would be some kind of thrill for some pilots. Add the challenge of a storm. OK, you have something to play with. Add yet a failure of an on-board engine - that's challenging.

From a game angle, one of the tasks of the game designer is come up with different kinds and levels of challenges so that a player is gradually "sucked" into the game.

The linkage of an environment (a space) with learning has been an interest to me for a quite some time. I see great parallel here. If a player, in order to achieve the game goal, needs to learn "something". The game goals become the greatest incentive for the player to learn "something". This is a classic case of a problem-based learning design - with one twist. We are now purposefully building an empty space (with constraint so that it is a contained space). We ensure the players are active participants in the space by providing "game goals". We "back-map" the game goals to learning objectives.

In A Novel Simulation for the Literature Classroom, Mary Noggle describes her experience of running a role play simulation for "American literature which emphasizes historical perspective, cultural context, and literary analysis." based on Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

The Scarlet Letter simulation begins at the pivotal point of the narrative when Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale meet in the forest, confess to their moments of deception, and avow to begin anew together. From there, the story moves to areas of the simulation set up for interaction among the characters. These interaction spaces (iSpaces) relate to spaces described in the novel. The forest scene, the governor’s mansion, and the meeting house, among others, serve as areas to intermingle, further developing the plot.

With the spaces set up, we then need the compelling reasons to act was.

The Scarlet Letter simulation begins at the pivotal point of the narrative when Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale meet in the forest, confess to their moments of deception, and avow to begin anew together.

and later in a second phase:

advances the storyline fifteen years in order to incorporate events leading up to the Boston witch trials of 1665, the persecution of historical character Ann Hibbins, and emphasizes the roles of Pearl and John Hathorne.

The result:

Surprisingly, students were reluctant to take part in the simulation at first; however, after the initial practice phase, these students demonstrated an eagerness to take part in the play. They take the story to heart, empathizing with the characters, and understand the painful experiences described in the narrative. Oftentimes in studying literature, students give a superficial reading of the novel. Through the simulation, though, students read more critically in order to delve inside the characters, understanding the key elements of motivation and internal conflict in order to effectively portray the roles. This careful reading was found with the supplementary reading material as well as the novel. Students read with interest sermons, journals, and poetry of the time period in order to capture the voice and beliefs of the people. In expanding the characters on their own, students also appreciate the author’s ability to develop characterization. In adopting the personas of these historical figures, students learn tolerance of varied beliefs while understanding the psychology of the times.

Fluid collections: a disincentive to resource-based instruction?

by Doug Johnson

Doug described very well a problem when lessons are linked to resources (digital) which may disappear without notice. OK, even with notice is still as bad.

Tom Hoffman commented that it is an incentive to just use free resources on the web. Unfortunately, it does not solve the problem as well. Free resources, like locked resources in repository, are equally likely to disappear.

The traditional "resource-based instruction" starts with a collection of resources gathered by the teacher and ends with the same collection! This is time to think about maintaining the collection by the teacher AND students. Obviously, we will still start with a collection of resources gathered by the teacher. BUT it should be end with the same collection. As part of the learning process, students can annotate, comment, add and remove resources. Year in year out, this would evolve into a collection much more appropriate to the cohort.

To begin, the collection can be as simple as a list on a web page (a wiki page will be better).

OK, that also means that we are sending students to the wild weird world and they may encountered inappropriate matter during the search and raise a Pandora of issues and concern. What should we do? In the real world, when a student wants to leave the classroom for whatever reason, what do we do? We send another one to go along, right? May be students should also work in pair for Internet searching.

A Glimpse into the History of Easter Candy

via BoingBoing

Easter has risen high in the candy hierarchy over the years. It is now the second top-selling candy holiday, just barely behind the glorious ode to sugar that is Halloween. Of the estimated 8 billion pounds of candy consumed in the United States each year, Easter makes up a very large portion of the pie.

Read on for a little history of how candy became a treat in Easter.

In view of the current worldwide obesity problem, we shall ban Halloween and Easter!

Just joking.

Learning 2020 reactivated

I have written a new post for Learning 2020, which has been neglected for a few months. http://2020learning.blogspot.com/

Flickr Tech Repair Group

For photos of technology repairs and ways to recycle electronic goods (from toasters to PC's).

Computers, printers, VCRs and other household devices seem to break too often... Sometimes it is something very simple that's wrong with them.
Upload your photos of any tech repairs (with a how-to description under the photo or in the group forum).

It could be as simple as changing a fuse or wiring a plug ... or more involved, like resoldering a circuit board.

Why don't I think about this use of Flickr first? Now with this as an example, we should start setting up different groups on different learning contexts.

Microsoft Excel viewer

Michael Robertson promised to announce a new ajax-based application each week. This week, he announced ajaxXLS.com. This version of ajaxXLS.com solves this problem:

My son's Little League season started two weeks ago. The helpful "team mom" emailed a team schedule to all the players. Unfortunately, it was an .xls file requiring Microsoft Excel to open the file. This is not unusual. The majority of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint users are casual home users who, like the mom in the above scenario, need to simply open a file that's been sent to them and then print it, or maybe make minor edits and pass it along.

Well before ajaxXLS.com, we still have a legal and proper solution - use a microsoft application viewer. These viewers are available for download at Office download center. Alternately, as suggested by Michael, we can also use OpenOffice to open any Microsoft office documents.

One unique feature of the current version of ajaxXLS.com is the ability to "create a link on your website that opens any spreadsheet in ajaxXLS."

Anyway, as Michael said, it is "Halfway to ajax-Excel" and I look forward to seeing the other halfway.

Google Calendar Wants To Date You

See a fairly detailed description of Google Calendar at Webpro.

Drawing cartoon online

Comics @ Mainada is probably the first web application in the world to allow users to draw complete comic strips directly online.

It’s free to everyone and can be a great showcast for humor sketch artists to show their art : you can draw online and immediately everyone else in the world with a net connection can see it.

Can it be a good site for art classes?

Rube Goldberg Machine

From Wikipedia:

A Rube Goldberg™ machine or device is any exceedingly complex apparatus that performs a very simple task in a very indirect and convoluted way. Rube devised and drew several such pataphysical devices.

Here are some examples:




What about getting your high school students to build some?

"Rube Goldberg" is a trademark of Rube Goldberg Inc.

Revisioning the LMS: an examination of formal learning management systems and component-based learning environments

by Christopher D. Sessums

I am not interested in LMS, so I will focus on the component-based part. I am passionate about component-based learning system, see Virtual Apparatus Framework which was part of my research in the early 90s.

Christopher has spelt out a number of merits and disadvantages of using a component-based approach.

With current Web 2.0 tools available, we need to ask what do we mean by "component". This will end up like the debate of "learning object" - just another name for the concept of using fragments of resources.

If we really want to push in this direction, which I still believe worth doing, we need to be really clear about:
1. what are the required behaviour of the components, and
2. the glue which will hand all the components together and ensure that they can work both independently and co-operatively.

When I first started the concept of "virtual apparatus", I depended on a Netscape technology called "live connect" in order to make sure that the components on a webpage were able to communicate. I ran into lots of problem each time a browser was updated. (Back in those days when MS and Netscape were fighting for the dominance of the browser, updates were frequent.)

With Web 2.0, one is likely to use "web service" as a basic component. However, we shall run into "cross domain scripting" issues.

While I have solution to overcome the problem, I don't have time to implement! Any taker?

Response to Doug Johnson posts

In a series of posts Becoming George, Is experimentation ethical? and Creativity without purpose? Experimentation without control?, Doug Johnson of Blue Skunk Blog put on the devil advocate's hat and ask:

Why should we treat our children's intellectual health any differently than we do our children's physical health?

I have no answer to his question. I would only ask this.

Should we keep our children in a sterilized bubble so that they would never catch any deadly germs?

When our children are physically sick and they are treated, we expect the health professionals to follow best practice. When our children have intellectual or mental illness, we also expect the responding professionals to treat our children following best practice.

As for teachers who are helping our children to grow and to become independent, I don't want to see my children's teachers just to follow what they have been doing for the past 20 years and forget that my children are going to face a world very different from mine. I want my children to be challenged, inspired, take risks and manage success and failure. I want my children to enjoy learning, have fun and foe during the process. I like them to be exposed to germs so that they can build their immune system.

My previous two posts are also part of my response to Doug's challenging question. See Demotion and Creativity and Teaching

21st century learning

Demotion

Moving from a teaching position to an administrative position is not a promotion into a senior position. It is a demotion albeit given more budgetary responsibility.

The core business of any education institute is to .... EDUCATE. Repeat after me three times. The core business of any education institute is to educate. The core business of any education institute is to educate. The core business of any education institute is to educate. Administrators are there to support and serve the teachers doing their job. Administrators are here to ensure that nothing will hinder the work of the teachers who are doing the CORE business of any education institute.

A promotion from a teaching position is to the "head" teacher position where the responsibility is to provide leadership, demonstrate innovation and creativity to the fellow teachers, excite and inspire the students, cultivate an effective and lively learning environment, etc. - in short STRENGTHEN the core competence of the education institute.

I know some principals who still teach a lesson or two, "to keep in touch with the students". Unfortunately, I also know a lot of them only do that half-heartedly. They took "easy" or unimportant lessons citing too busy in administrative duties to take on full responsibility of a course! My suggestion, don't put the car in front of the horse! Administrative duties can be shared. Leadership, innovation and strengthening the core competence of the education institution is the FULL-TIME job!

Creativity and Teaching

David Warlick, in Curriculum as Mashup commenting on Putting Creativity Back in Education said,

Today, information is the raw material that people work with. The creative class (Richard Florida) are artisans. They're information artisans, people who craft information into something that is unique and valuable to us.

Most students have a knack for learning to use technology. However, learning to work the information does not come so naturally. They must be taught how to do this -- and why.

David told an interesting story about a teacher in Hong Kong turning the classroom into a pinhole camera:

They had covered up the windows of the room, except for a single hole, attached unexposed film on the opposite wall, and then opened the hole for a predetermined amount of time, allowing the light from outside the room to hit the film. When they closed the hole back up again, they took the exposed film down, developed it, and then combined the prints into a wall-sized collage of the image outside their room.

This is CREATIVITY, meshing math, science and social science into a vivid, lively and unforgetable experience for the learners. I can imagine that these lucky learners will never in their life forget about this wonderful teacher and the feat they have achieved.

An ordinary teacher, doing her job day in day out with the same set of "proven" approaches and methodologies will NOT be able to inspire! The same pin hole photograph in the same school next year will NOT produce the same thrills and excitement. It is novelty and the sense of accomplishment by the learners that will give them the inspiration for the rest of their life.


Evan McIntosh in Don't worry, be crappy took inspiration from Guy Kawaski. The two points highlighted are:

Don't worry, be crappy. An innovator doesn't worry about shipping an innovative product with elements of crappiness if it's truly innovative. The first permutation of a innovation is seldom perfect

and

Don't be afraid to polarize people. Most companies want to create the holy grail of products that appeals to every demographic, social-economic background, and geographic location. To attempt to do so guarantees mediocrity. Instead, create great DICEE products that make segments of people very happy. And fear not if these products make other segments unhappy. The worst case is to incite no passionate reactions at all, and that happens when companies try to make everyone happy.

This points to another aspect of creativity and innovation. If teachers are constantly required to produce "evidence" of improvement for any creative changes, no creativity or innovation will ever happen. We have to trust the "good well" or the "good intention" of passionate teachers, afterall teaching is NOT a well paid job, most teachers still teach because they are passionate about our next generation!

Instruction Design Verse Learning Design

From Wikipedia

Instructional design, also known as instructional systems design, is the analysis of learning needs and systematic development of instruction.

From Unpacking Learning Design

Learning Design can be broadly described as a philosophical approach to the design of learning environments and learning resources which aim to foster deep learning by engaging learners in authentic, active and interactive learning experiences.

The term "learning design" is used to describe the body of work that would come out from the shift in focus when pedagogy focus on the learner in stead of the skill of the teacher (Unlearning pedagogy):

formal education erred in focusing on the skills of the teacher, when it was the learner who ought to be the centre and focus of pedagogy

Unlearning pedagogy

by Erica McWilliam

This is the keynote paper in the first issue of Journal of Learning Design

Our teaching and learning habits are useful but they can also be deadly. They are useful when the conditions in which they work are predictable and stable. But what happens if and when the bottom falls out of the stable social world in and for which we learn?

This is timely. We know that for developed countries to remain status quo, our next generation needs to be able to work at very high value jobs which means the current industrial-era education system and methodology need serious review and change. (see What will her future be?, What will her future be? 14 months later, What will her future be - 2? and Our world is changing, our schools are failing,....)

Quoting from Carl Roger, Erica argued that "formal education erred in focusing on the skills of the teacher, when it was the learner who ought to be the centre and focus of pedagogy". She went on to identify 7 deadly habits:

• Deadly Habit No.1: The more learning the better.
• Deadly Habit No.2: Teachers should know more than students.
• Deadly Habit No3: Teachers lead, students follow.
• Deadly Habit No. 4: Teachers assess, students are assessed.
• Deadly Habit No.5: Curriculum must be set in advance.
• Deadly Habit No. 6: The more we know our students, the better.
• Deadly habit No.7: Our disciplines can save the world.

Among these 7 deadly habits, I echo strongly with No.5. Knowledge is advancing too quickly for us to freeze curriculum to meet some metrics of usefulness and applicability based on past experience. However I would also like to caution that a loosen curriculum does not mean a relax of rigour in the depth of treatment in the subject matter.

Web-based video editing and mixing

Michael Robertson has been introducing an ajax based application every week. There were AjaxWrite.com and ajaxSketch.com which I have reported. From my tone, you probably would have guessed that I was not particularly impressed, partly due to their overloaded server and network.

This week Michael introduced eyespot which is REALLY impressive.

First you upload your media (directly by sending MMS message from your mobile or email to your own account at eyespot. Start up the mixer, using drag and drop, you can compose your video and viola, you have your mix for saving or sending.

This will open up a new capability for students all over the world!

WOW!

Gentle introduction of technology to girls

via boingboing

The first episode from this still beta website shows two girls making a recording photo frame.

I think everyone should give it a try.

Ideas worth nothing

In academic, we are very, VERY concerned about the source and the originality of ideas. However, among inventors that is quite different. Larry MacDonald in the [I-NET] list said,

Personally, I consider ideas to be like seeds that birds drop all over the world. One set of seed represents multiple holographic copies of the idea. Some land in the water, some on rock, some are damaged, some never get any water. However, there are usually several that fall on fertile ground, receive the right amount of water, sun, and nurishment to flourish. Now those "ideas" have value. The rest are "failures" or practice for people or ideas for books or movies or "I thought of that" stories. Much like the single sperm that amoung billions is the one to become a person.

I often ask myself whether the idea I just came up with is something I should do, or whether it is something I should enjoy and appreciate, but someone else is doing it. Most of the time I just admire the idea and realize that I don't have the skills necessary to do it, but someone must also be thinking about it who does.

One reason it is said that an idea has no value may be that the idea has no value UNTIL it is developed. It takes about 1000 ideas to result in one successful product (numerous sources say so). Certainly THAT one idea that led to success had value, but not until after the development.

How would anyone know in advance which of the 1000 ideas had value? The value of an idea is what people will pay for it in a market economy.

If we are over protective of our ideas and refuse to discuss, elaborate and develop the idea into useful practice in our endeavour to help people learn, it is like a seed falling on a little dry corner. Will it germinate?