Children…Learning with Technologies

1. Children…Learning with Technologies Opening Statement CoSN International Symposium 2002

2. Highlights • Changing views of learning • Why technology matters • Emerging paradigms for making transformative technologies for learning • Where do we need to go?

3. Emerging views of “learning” Transformation of mental structures (cognitive science, constructivism) …converging with… Transformation of participation structures (communities of practice, situated learning) …… and ….. More concerned with meaning-making than meaning-acquisition

4. We are recognizing the needed dialog between….. • The Child’s Construction of the World (Jean Piaget) • The World’s Construction of the Child (Marx Wartofsky) • The child develops by sense-making in the world, but we collectively craft the world being sensed, and our images and practices that make for “childhood.”

5. Why does technology matter for learning? It changes the infrastructure for doing learning: representations and communication • Mature expertise involves fluent control of multiple representational fluencies • Learning discourse is representationally rich - and ICT provides a meta-medium for creation and coordination of semiotic systems • Technology re-organizes the activity systems in which learning conversations, work, and representational practices are achieved • Technology makes possible entirely new representational forms and new activity systems using them

6. Examples of technology-enabled activity systems…in the adult world • Collaboratories enabling distributed collaborative design, science, business, learning organizations sharing data, instruments, expertise and tools • “E-Science: Inquiry with scientific visualizations and dynamic simulation models • Exploratory statistical data analysis • Distributed sensor-based investigations of earth’s environment (GRID computing) • Highly personalized CRM (Customer Relationship Systems)

7. Paradigms for using technology to support learning • Linking real-world contexts for learning • Connections to experts and communities of learners • Visualization and analysis tools • Scaffolds for problem solving • Opportunities for feedback, reflection & revision • Teacher learning How People Learn (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, Eds.) National Academy Press, 1999

8. Many exciting and dramatic visions and results from K-12 e-learning • Virtual fieldtrips and inquiry “quests” teleport students to remote places and engage learning • Learning environments leveraging scientific understanding to improve access to reading • Student-scientist partnerships connect learners to powerful tools and distributed models for doing science and understanding the environment • Simulations and dynamic graphing tools bringing calculus understanding to urban middle school students • 1:1 E-Learning models offering teachers better assessment information to guide instructional practices • Teacher communities learning online together about best practices

9. Learning theory feeding back on technology designs for learning • “Transformation of participation structures (communities of practice, situated learning)” • “More concerned with meaning-making than meaning-acquisition” • On-line learning communities • Telementoring • Distributed project-based learning teams • Student-scientist partnerships • Digital Portfolios

10. Technology drivers • What will they make possible for learning? • How will they change learning ecologies?

11. Fourth Wave Internet (Sarnoff Labs) A multidimensional explosion Media Richness 3D interactive objects Audio and video Text and Graphics Smart Service PC connected Several things connected Browsers Everything connected Search Engines Ubiquitous Connectivity Media based searches Personalized Web View Process 100s MIPs Storage GB Speed Mbps Personalized Search Process MIPs Storage MB Speed kbps IT Capacity

12. Where do we need to go? • Focus on transformative uses of technology for learning…not replicating existing learning paradigms We need to be futuristic about inventing and studying learning environments for the gaps have never been greater between the world children live in now and will live in as adults. Because the change rate of change itself continues to increase.

13. Where do we need to go? • Find ways to more deeply engage kids’ creativity in inventing learning paradigms that work for them Children are the leaders in transforming language, fashion, music. Why not technology for learning?

14. Where do we need to go? • “Trend spotting” in advanced uses of computing in society in professional communities of practice --> leverage them for kids’ learning • Collaboratories and remote instrumentation • Knowledge management systems • Grid computing • Visualization and modeling • “Just-in-place” information (GIS, GPS, wireless handheld computer access)

15. Where do we need to go? 4. Critically reflective discourse around the future of childhood that feeds into design and research: recognizing that as we are changing the world in which children live, we are changing what they do and will become