Keynote paper: Unlocking the learning Keynote paper: Unlocking the learning

value of wireless mobile devicesvalue of wireless mobile devices

Adviser: Ming-Puu Chen

Presenter: Li-Chun Wang

Roschelle, J. (2003). Keynote paper: Unlocking the learning value of wir

eless mobile devices. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 260-272.

2

AbstractAbstract• The lessons drawn from three well-documented uses of

connected handheld devices in education

- Research needs to arrive at a more precise understanding of the attributes of wireless networking that meet acclaimed pedagogical requirements and desires.

- ‘pedagogical applications’ are often led down the wrong road by complex views of technology and simplistic views of social practices.

- ‘large scale’ impact depends on the extent to which a common platform, that meets the requirements of pedagogically rich applications, becomes available.

3

OutlinesOutlines• Introduction

• Three classroom applications

- Classroom response systems

- Participatory simulations

- Collaborative data gathering

• Lessons about connectivity

• Lessons about pedagogical technology

• Lessons about scale

4

IntroductionIntroduction The field of computer-supported collaborative learning has already

successfully tackled two key concerns: control and representation.

- The control led to a definition of three possible roles for the computer:

(1) as tutor: an algorithm or artificially intelligent agent is predominately in control of the student.

(2) as tutee: the student exercises control by programming the computer (e.g. with Logo);

(3) as tool: teachers, activities and teams of students are the loci of control; the computer is a mediating object that is neither in control nor the object to be controlled.

- The representation follows from the important of human-machine interaction in the pedagogical and social use of technology. (1) mediate social construction of deep understanding of a subject area. (2) used conversationally to support each other in a process of convergent

conceptual change.

5

• Classroom response systems (Classtalk)The learning process: Teacher : pose a short answer or multiple-choice question System: collects and aggregations every students responses Students: hold individual handheld response unit and sent their response anonymously Teacher’s machine: aggregates the students’ responses and presents them in a coherent form (h

istogram). The teacher and students observe patterns in the variation of responses and use this shared poi

nt of reference to launch into pedagogical conversations.

The pedagogical uses:- Monitoring students’ evolving understanding of challenging domain concepts. - Driving their small group discussions (peer instruction)- Reveal a high proportion of misconceptions in a classroom- Reveal a pattern of convergence towards the correct concept.- Formative assessment student: receive more feedback- Embarrassment is reduced

Three classroom applicationsThree classroom applications

6

7

Participatory simulationsParticipatory simulations• Students act as agents in simulation.• Simulations enable students to model and learn about the many scientific

phenomena relating to decentralised systems. • Participatory simulations have been implemented using technology as sim

ple as Lego bricks with tiny embedded processors and infrared exchange capabilities.

• Researchers who have studied participatory simulations are enthusiastic for two reasons:

(1) simulations appear to make very difficult ideas around ‘distributed systems’ and ‘emergent behaviour’ more accessible to students.

(2) participation embeds student engagement in a playful social space - thoughtfully acting in playful spaces - more easily become highly engaged in the subject matter.

Supplementary: Difficult ideas, Phenomena… Supplementary: Difficult ideas, Phenomena… embedded in simulation embedded in simulation Interaction Interaction Build mental model Build mental model

simplifiessimplifies

manipulatemanipulate

8

Collaborative data gatheringCollaborative data gathering• Use of probe to gather and graph data from live experiments

instantaneously. - allow students to gather accurate data

- to focus on the interpretation of the data

- inquiry-centered science classroom

- ex: Palms + Probeware

9

Lessons about connectivityLessons about connectivity• The WILD application:

- a local messaging topology: hub and spoke、 peer-to-peer、 teacher

direct、 student intercommunicate.

- teacher-controlled communications

- spatially directed communications: spatial proximity organize the mess

aging topology

- asynchronous structured data message

- aggregation: allows teachers to address the variation in understandings

present

- a shared public display: for discussion

10

Lessons about pedagogical technologyLessons about pedagogical technology• The problems with mobile wireless handheld device:

- interface to instructional management

- small screen with limited input possibilities

- provides little insight into the social practices

11

Lessons about scaleLessons about scale• The problem of scale facing WILDs:

- common software

- connectivity standard for authors of such applications to target.

- incompatible operating systems

- wireless networking is at an extremely low level (now??)

• Pedagogical application standards:

- Probeware has accommodated plat form incompatibilities by continual

re-implementation on each successive platform.

- Participatory simulations and classtalk have yet to become broad scale

phenomena.

12

ConclusionConclusion• To adopt a critical attitude to the economic plausibility of a ubiquitou

s, mobile, personal teacher and learning platform.

• Wireless and mobile technologies in education will succeed to the ext

ent that coupling is increasingly understanding:

- within the informatic world: appropriate communication infrastructure

s, protocols, messaging standards, and processing capabilities, distributed acro

ss devices.

- within the social world: appropriate mutual engagement of a teachers an

d students in social practices of learning (learner-centered, assessment-centere

d, knowledge-centered, community-centered)

- across the iformatic and social world