Emerging Media and Technologies That Enable Distributed Learning

1. Emerging Mediaand TechnologiesThat EnableDistributed Learning Chris Dede Harvard University Chris_Dede@harvard.edu www.gse.harvard.edu/~dedech/

2. Presentational/Assimilative Model of Instruction • Loss of natural curiosity and motivation • Superficial comprehension oflow-level content and skills • Limited retention • Inability to transfer or generalize • Students with other learning stylesleft behind Substituting Efficiency for Effectiveness

3. Powerful Pedagogical Models • guided inquiry learning withactive construction of knowledge • apprenticeship/mentoring relationships • learning communities:social exploration of multiple perspectives How People Learn(National Academy Press, 1999) http://www.nap.edu/books/0309070368/html

4. The Challenge of Educatingfor the 21st Century • Mastering a broader range of knowledge • Decision making givenincomplete informationand uncertain goals • Teamwork • Filtering rather than finding in contrast to “industrial era” education

5. The Partnershipfor 21st Century Skills • Six Key Elements of 21st Century Learning • ICT Literacy Framework Linking21st Century Tools to Learning Skills • 21st Century Content • Milestones for Improving21st Century Learning • Nine Steps to Build Momentum www.21stcenturyskills.org

6. Educational Implications ofA Flattened World Emerging interactive media now empower not only countries and companies, but also individuals to collaborate, to accomplish, and to learn in new and powerful ways

7. The Role of Media in“Next Generation” Education • channels for sending contentanyplace, on demand • “representational containers”for new types of messages • contexts that empower collaboration evolving new kinds of meaning aswe sense and act and learnacross barriers of distance and time

8. Evolving towardDistributed Learning • Sophisticated Methods of Learning and Teaching • guided construction of knowledge and meaning • apprenticeships and mentoring • infusion of research into teaching • Orchestrated across classrooms, homes, workplaces, community settings • On demand, just-in-time • Collaborative distributed across space, time, media

9. My Distributed Learning Course http://my.gse.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?course=gse-t502 • face-to-face interaction • videoconferencing • wireless, handheld devices • small group collaboration via groupware • synchronous interaction in virtual environment • asynchronous, threaded discussion • informal website-based learning experiences • shells for course authoring New Forms of Rhetoric

10. Lessons Learned • Richer, deeper learning from mixturethan from any subset • Participants “Find Their Voice” • Time for Communication and Reflection • Peer Mentoring and Collaboration • Very different individual patterns of preference for mixture of media • Instructional design complex mixof cognitive, affective, psychosocial learning styles

11. What is a MUVE? • A representational container that enables multiple simultaneous participants to access virtual spaces configured for learning. • A place where learners represent themselves through graphical avatars (persona)to communicate with others’ avatars and computer-based agents, as well as to interact with digital artifacts and virtual contexts. • A learning experience that provides diverse activities in support of classroom curriculum.

12. Synchronous Learning Environments (MUVEs) • Facilitate brainstorming and social interaction • Encourage shy students to participate • Enable “authentic” presentation of the selfby some learners • Alter the pattern of intercommunication • Allow covert and meta-communication • Foster convenient access • Require mastering a new type of rhetoric • Require rapid reading and typing skills • Require novel forms of instructional design Enhance student participation face-to-face

13. Tapped In: www.tappedin.org

14. Learning Community A culture of learning, in which everyone is involvedin a collective effort of understanding • Shares and develops a repertoire of resources: experiences, tools, stories,ways of addressing recurring problems • Allows a close connectionbetween learning and doing • Addresses the informal and tacit aspectsof knowledge creation and sharing an alternative means of teaching/learningand of professional development

15. Distributed-Learning Communities • Range of participants’ skills and interestsgoes beyond geographic boundariesand face-to-face opportunities • Asynchronous media enable convenient participation, deeper reflection,and archiving of insights • Emotional and social dimensions rely on synchronous virtual interchanges • Broader range of participants willactively engage in dialogue Compared to face-to-face communities,more investment required to participate

16. Synchronous Learning Environments (Groupware) • Facilitate small-group collaboration,brainstorming, and expression • Foster convenient access • Help some students to “find their voices” • Enable sharing and annotatingcomplex artifacts and products • Require mastering a new type of rhetoric • Require collective time management • Require rapid reading and typing • Require recognition of time and effort • Require time and effort to install and master Enhance student participation face-to-face

17. http://moonedit.com/

18. Distributed Cognition • “dispersal of intellectual functioning across physical, social, and symbolic supports” • graphing • word processing • Vygotskyan mentoring • Handheld devices and ubiquitous computing

19. Why Ubiquitous Computing • One-to-One Student to Tool Ratio • Wireless Handheld Devices (WHD) offer approximately 60% of the computing powerof laptops of a few years ago • One WHD is approximately 10% of the costof one modern laptop • Handheld ubiquitous computing – instant on, anytime, everywhere, and in the hand of the user

20. Emerging Digital Media MayPervade All Aspects of Life • MWDs access every type of data service anywhere (banking and stock market information, weather, tickets/reservations, transport schedules) • MWDs access data connected to locations(street signs linked to online maps), objects(books linked to online reviews), and locations(restaurants linked to ratings by their customers) • MWDs locate strangers nearby who have identified themselves as having common interests(friends of friends, fans of an actor or author) Rheingold, Smart Mobs (‘02); W. Mitchell, Me + + (’03)

21. Requisite Information Infrastructure is Emerging • One-third of U.S. households now have broadband access to the Internet. • In the past three years, 14 million U.S. families have linked their computers withwireless home networks. • Some 55% of Americans now carrycell phones • The first WMD data services--radio, photos, and short videoclips--are starting to take off

22. Harvard’s Handheld Devicesfor Ubiquitous Learning Project http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~hdul/

23. Findings from HDUL Wireless Handheld Devices can serve as: • Portable research assistants • Assess what people know • Collect people’s opinions • Digitally record interviews and capture digital images • Collect real-time data via probeware and calculation software • Aggregate individual datasets • Traveling conduits for online learning • Vehicles for participatory simulations • Artifacts that enhance thinking • Means for locating learning resources Media-Driven Learning Styles

24. Asynchronous Learning Environments (Threaded Dscssns) • Allow time for reflection and expression • Enabled flexibility in participation patterns andin provision of aid • Increase the total amount of communication • Alter the pattern of intercommunication • Help some learners to “find their voices” • Convey a sense of “publishing” • Require mastering a new type of rhetoric • Require management of time • Require filtering skills and novel instructional designs • Require recognition of time and effort Enhance student participation face-to-face

25. http://concord.org/elearningmodel

26. Emerging Interactive Media • Podcastinghttp://epnweb.org/ • RSS Feeds and Accumulatorshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) • Blogginghttp://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=126

27. Conditions for Successin Technological Innovation • High-quality learning tools and materials • Extensive professional development • Strong technical infrastructure • Organizational shifts to enabledeeper content, powerful pedagogies • Equity in Content and Servicesas well as Access and Literacy • Stakeholder Involvement

28. Meeting the Challenge ofTransformation via “Unlearning” • Developing fluency in usingemerging interactive media • Complementing presentational instructionwith collaborative inquiry-based learning • Unlearning almost unconscious assumptions and beliefs and values about the nature of teaching, learning, and schooling crucial issue for professional development

29. Four Levels ofLearning Technologies • Device (cell phone, HDTV,personal digital assistant) • Application (word processors, intelligent tutoring systems, educational simulations) • Medium (shared virtual environments, interactive television, worldwide web) • Infrastructure (Internet, telephone system, cable and broadcast television, cyberspace)

30. Beyond McLuhan • Media shape their messages • Media shape their participants • Infrastructures shape civilization