Technology-Enabled Learning

1. Technology-Enabled Learning Jeff Froyd, Texas A&M University, froyd@ee.tamu.edu David Cordes, University of Alabama, cordes@cs.ua.edu Wright State University

2. Make a sheet of paper +  Issue Bin Questions Comments

3. Why might I be helpful? • Taught at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for 18 years in the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering • Developed an integrated circuits/electronics sequence • Worked an a project to integrate computers into electrical engineering laboratories. • Helped developed an integrated, first-year curriculum in science, engineering and mathematics • Purchases 70 NeXT computers in 1990 • Co-developed many activities that integrated the computer

4. Workshop Outline • 1:30 PM - Workshop Guidelines (5 min.) • 1:35 PM– Innovative Classrooms (15 min.) • 1:50 PM – How do people learn? (20 min.) • 2:10 PM – Ways students use technology (40 min.) • 2:50 PM – Workshop Goals (20 min.) • 3:10 PM – BREAK (20 minutes) • 3:30 PM – Information Dump (40 min.) • 4:10 PM – Processing (50 min.)

5. Tenets of Learning • Each learner needs learning goals • Each learner relates incoming information to his/her existing cognitive network • Sharing and listening to the insights of others helps improve your understanding of workshop content • Effective workshops are partnerships between facilitators and participants. • Effective workshops do not occur when participants expect the facilitators to do all the cognitive work • Effective workshops do not occur when facilitators expect that participants will be able to “just make sense” out of a large set of informative slides • Each participant brings many mental models to learning and change experiences.

6. Introduction: Basic Guidelines • Will operate in a team-based mode • The group knows more than any one person • Become involved frequently • No pre-defined set of material that “must” be covered in this workshop • When looking at innovative classrooms, we will focus on • The use of technology in the classroom • Lower-division engineering courses

7. Introduction: Team Formation • Self-Organize into four-person groups • Want to emphasize diversity • Try to organize to maximize diversity across the group • Try to organize so that none of your team members was also on your morning team • Introduce yourselves (name, discipline, institution) within the group

8. What is an innovative classroom? Part One

9. Team Exercise • Within your group: discuss the following question among yourselves What is an innovative classroom?(and could you recognize one if you saw it) Appoint a reporter to capture group results

10. An innovative classroom is ... • Physical layout is flex. And conducive to groups • Multimedia • Phsyical demos • Internet access for running programs • Instructors using computers interchangeable with othe modes • Distance learning • All students have computers in studio environment and using software package

11. Team Exercise • Within your group: discuss the following question among yourselves Is the present classroom an innovative classroom? Why or why not? Appoint a reporter to capture group results

12. Is this an innovative classroom? • Somewhat, workshop env. • Yes, info flowing from students • Yes, everything except student access to computers • Yes, but problems, screen covering whiteboard, • Yes, swivel chairs (groups), projection equipment, (bad- too narrow and long)

13. How do people learn? Part Two

14. Part One: Overview • Four Fundamental Questions • What do I want people to learn? • Where are learners starting from? • How do people learn? • How might I facilitate learning?

15. Pedagogical Approaches • Active Learning • Cooperative Learning • Problem-Based Learning • Project-Based Learning • Discovery Learning • Inquiry-Based Learning • Distance Learning

16. Possible Confusion “A common misconception regarding ‘constructivist’ theories of knowing (that existing knowledge is used to build new knowledge) is that teachers should never tell students anything directly but, instead, should always allow them to construct knowledge for themselves. This perspective confuses a theory of pedagogy (teaching) with a theory of knowing. Constructivists assume that knowledge is constructed from previous knowledge, irrespective of how one is taught -- even listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge… Nevertheless, there are times, usually after people have first grappled with issues on their own, that ‘teaching by telling’ can work extremely well.” How People Learn, Bransford, John D. et. al. 1999

17. Expectations: What do you want people to learn? • Course syllabi • Learning objectives • Taxonomies • Competency matrices • Rubrics

18. Expectations: What do you want people to learn? • Current Reality: Where are learners starting from? • Data about entering students • Pre-tests • Experience with past students

19. Expectations: What do you want people to learn? How do people learn? How do people close the gap? Neurological Cognitive Conceptual Classroom Organizational Current Reality: Where are learners starting from?

20. Expectations: What do you want people to learn? How do people learn? Examples Cooperative Learning Problem-Based Learning Curriculum Integration How do you facilitate learning and learners? Pedagogical Theory Current Reality: Where are learners starting from?

21. Expectations What do you want people to learn? Pedagogical Theories How do you facilitate learning? Learning Theories How do people learn? Current Reality What are learners starting from?

22. Four Questions • What do I want people to learn? • Expectations, judgment • Where are my students starting from? • Data, experience • How do people learn? • Learning process • Research: neurology, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, physics education • How might I facilitate learning? • Teaching process

23. ReflectionModel for Learning and Teaching Team Exercise THINK-PAIR-SHARE Identify two insights that you have gained from the four-question model for learning and teaching. Identify two questions for which you would like answers.

24. ReflectionModel for Learning and Teaching • May not pay attention to starting point • Expectations don’t cause learning • Different levels of learning • Think about expectations, starting point, but not others • Pre-course questionaries indicate very large variance • What do you do with a wide variance? • Do I want student expectations? • Knowledge to Synthesis • Different methods to determine starting point • Different methods for different learning levels

25. How might students use technology? Part Three

26. Categories of Technology • Learner-Centered: Focus on what students are doing with technology • Stop here and ask participants for suggestions on what students can do with technology. • Are they receiving/consuming information? • Are they communicating/collaborating with other students? With the teacher? • Are they learning to use new tools for designing and/or analyzing engineering artifacts?

27. Categories of Technology • Consumptive Technology • Facilitates access to and transfer of information • Faculty generate info; students read info • Examples: browsers, Adobe Acrobat Reader • Collaborative Technology • Facilitates communication among class members • Examples: e-mail, web forums (WebBoard) • Generative Technology • Facilitates increasingly powerful actions by users • Students can perform more difficult tasks with the same effort or the same tasks with less effort • Examples: MATLAB, Maple, Microsoft Office

28. Consumptive Technology: Examples • Hypertext Browsers • Adobe Acrobat Reader • Multimedia Players • Real Player • Microsoft Media Player • Java Applets • Computer-Graded Assignments (?)

29. Consumptive Technology Characteristics • Student perspective: Technology is easy to learn and use. • Faculty perspective: Technology presents a substantial learning curve and choices among technologies are difficult to make. • Faculty perspective: It takes a SUBSTANTIAL amount of time to create material for student consumption. For multi-media materials the ratio of creation time to viewing time may be higher than 10:1. • Faculty perspective: Reuse of material is very important.

30. Consumptive Technology: Applications • Courses that reach beyond campuses • Course notes on web • Power Point presentations on web • Java applets • Computer-graded assignments (?) • ??

31. Consumptive Technology: Leverage • Commonality of software applications among students and instructor, e.g, same web browser, same media player, etc. • Can often be facilitated by institutional computer center

32. Consumptive Technology: Resources • Woody Flowers presentation • http://www.asme.org/educate/ • Burks Oakley presentations • http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/ • Kurt Gramoll projects (Engineering Media Lab) • http://eml.ou.edu/ • NEEDS (National Engineering Education Delivery System) • http://www.needs.org • SCALE (Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments) • http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/

33. Team Exercise • Stage 1 – Decide how your team will work on this exercise. (2 minutes) • Stage 2 – List ways in which consumptive technology may facilitate learning. If time permits, prioritize your answers. (4 minutes) • Stage 3 - List ways in which consumptive technology may hinder learning or have negligible impact. If time permits, prioritize your answers. (4 minutes)

34. Ways in which consumptive technology facilitates learning. • Provide easy access to resources, e.g., handouts, etc. • Move from copying to more active reading • On-line tests provide immediate feedback • Allows visualization and simulation for visual learning styles • Allows responsiveness, access to practice problems • Anytime, anyplace • Projecting notes provides space for interaction • Helps keep teacher organized

35. Ways in which consumptive technology does not facilitate learning. • Learner focus on one info source, e.g., skip lecture • Facilitates cheating • Access to unreliable info • May encourage lack of engagement • Less thinking because of provided answers • Electronic overhead doesn’t add value • Teacher may go too fast • Potential info overload, failure to focus

36. Collaborative Technology: Examples • E-mail • Web Forums – threaded discussions • WebBoard • First Class • Instant Messaging • AOL IM • ICQ • Conferencing Software • Microsoft NetMeeting

37. Collaborative Technology: Characteristics • Student perspective: Technology is easy to learn and use. • Faculty perspective: Technology is easy to learn and use. • Faculty perspective: Responding to student inquiries and comments may be time consuming. • Faculty perspective: Putting collaborative technology in place is not difficult.

38. Communicative Technology: Resources • Math Forum • http://www.mathforum.com/

39. Collaborative Technology: Leverage • Commonality of software applications among students and instructor, e.g, available e-mail server and clients, available web forum software, etc. • ??

40. Generative TechnologyExamples • Programming Languages • Office Productivity Suites • Numeric Manipulation Systems • Symbolic Manipulation Systems • Computer-Aided Design Packages • Simulation Packages

41. Generative TechnologyProgramming Languages • System Languages • FORTRAN • C • C++ • Java • Scripting Languages • Perl • Python • TCL • Mathematica • Maple • MATLAB

42. Generative TechnologyOffice Productivity Suites • Microsoft Office • Word • Excel • PowerPoint • Outlook – e-mail • Access - database

43. Generative TechnologyNumeric Manipulation Systems • MATLAB • Simulink • Toolboxes: Signal Processing, Control, etc. • Octave • Open Source Project

44. Generative TechnologySymbolic Manipulation Systems • Maple • Mathematica • MathCAD

45. Generative TechnologyComputer-Aided Design Systems • Electrical • Mentor Graphics, Cadence, Spice • Mechanical / Thermal / Fluid • Working Model, Interactive Physics • SDRC IDEAS • AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop

46. Generative TechnologyLaboratory Systems • Examples • LabVIEW • VEE • Computer-Based Instrumentation • Example: physics laboratories • Laboratory Automation • Example: circuits laboratories

47. Generative Technology: Characteristics • Generative technologies have steeper and longer learning curves for both students and faculty than consumptive and collaborative technologies. • If students and faculty go to the effort to learn a generative technology, it seems that it would be more helpful to build on that learning in one or more subsequent classes.

48. Generative Technology: Leverage • Learn once, use repeatedly – required because of the relatively steep, lengthy learning curve • Requires that departmental, college, and/or university faculty agree on a set of applications, how students will learn to use the software, and how students will repeatedly apply the software • ??

49. Team Exercise • Stage 1 – Decide how your team improve on the following exercise. (2 minutes) • Stage 2 – List ways in which generative technology may facilitate learning. If time permits, prioritize your answers. (4 minutes) • Stage 3 - List ways in which generative technology may hinder learning or have negligible impact. If time permits, prioritize your answers. (4 minutes)

50. Ways in which generative technology facilitates learning. • Analyze data and presentations • Easier editing and rewriting • Simulation and visualization can handle wider range of problems • Model more alternatives, handle real-world problems • Students use tools to self-assess • Improve communication skills