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I found the conference agenda too densely packed with concurrent events to permit intelligent choice between offerings, but I encountered wonderful opportunities to meet with colleagues. Presenters ranged in quality from rigidly over-prepared using a script with little interaction with the audience, to dynamic facilitators who were able to engage listeners in discussion. Overall, the conference themes didn’t seem to unite things for me, I had a sense of starting over in many sessions, of having to hear the same key messages (and problems) repeatedly. Redundancy of content was evident, but it is hard to know how to control for this.
In addition to the notes in the other Deep Thoughts:
The four keynote speakers flowed together, reinforced common themes, and made these points:
“ICT believers” need good governance in order to be:
- Accountable
- Able to perform (with the technology)
- Have standards that are accepted
- Competitive
Learning Technology has to be efficient FOR something (i.e. must have an educational purpose or goal), and it must be scalable (for different numbers of people) and sustainable. It should provide access to resources that can be edited and changed to keep up with knowledge and client demand.
Interactive computer technology can be a disruptive technology because it interferes with existing social and communicative practices.
Now we can have learners broadcast audio and video on the internet via their laptops to each other. The goal of the learning technology here is to create a learning community with
- Connected learners
- Shared learning spaces
- Supporting social discourse
- Reflection and articulation
Social software on the internet is becoming more important, including ipods, blogger, 2nd life, utube, my space. There is a need for more intelligent searching tools on websites that narrow down choices intelligently (example: a real estate site that used a guided questionnaire).
The web is developing in many ways that include the continuing need for ‘big ideas’ that turn data into meaningful knowledge.
The main educational criterion for technology is that it should produce better learning outcomes, not produce more of the same (inferior outcomes) more quickly and in greater numbers.
The internet and computers (ICT) support the conscious creation of emergent and ubiquitous collective consciousness. (extrapolated from early work on collective consciousness by sociologist Emile Durkheim).
There are issues of privacy and control when the internet is used to require postings from learners in a course. The virtual classroom presents access and privacy control challenges.
Social software tools (blogging, threaded discussion) may no longer be social when they are used coercively, i.e. as required.
Only learners should decide on the audience for their work and communications.
It is not what you know, but who you know how to ask that governs use of the internet.
There are search engines now for blogs and sites (www.cite-u-like)
Communities are developing online via tagging, sharing, and leaving traces. The premise for community is equity: “as I draw, so I give back”. (see works by John Dron 2007 on the evolution of the internet).
There are polling tools and surveys on line as well as profiling tools, such as the recommendations service for items of potential interest offered by Amazon to clients that order books.
Bebo White ( Stanford University bebo@slac.stanford.edu) discussed web 2.0 as a recent phenomenon in ‘re packaging the web’.
The hype about putting the “we back in web” that surrounds web 2.0 compliant advertising begs many questions. The web provides a means for interacting with other people or data.
We need to go back to basics first: what is the web good for? (what can it accomplish for us) What is the purpose of the web, for the sake of which we are using it? (Aristotelian questions).
There can be a fine line (or no line) between intelligent searching on the web, and group-think.
The development of the web involves moving from being a user of information to becoming a creator of information.
There is a ‘hype cycle’ in new technologies: introduction-euphoria-disillusionment- productivity plateau.
The social uses of the web are increasing to support more group interaction and engagement. There is an emerging science of online audience engagement.
There is growing ‘citizen journalism’.
(Web may lead to magical expectations that oversimplify the world or miss the point):
Eric Schmidt, “When I’m typing I want the computer to show me what I should be typing”
Google President, “When you search, if you get more than one answer it’s a bug”
“you should be able to get the answer to what you meant and in your own language”.
The web now has continuous data streams in more than one application and many interfaces (ways/devices to get on and off the web) Educators need big ideas to turn information into meaningful knowledge. New kinds of learning require new strategies and patterns that use the right tools from the net.
The keynote speakers reinforce the need to examine the fundamental issues that were identified in the Literature review for the ABKLC.
- The purpose of Aboriginal learning must be clarified in order to know how this is distinct from the learning goals of other populations in Canada and the world. This in turn leads to a need to clarify the meaning of Aboriginal identity in the 21st century.
- Technology does not by itself establish or accomplish any educational goals.
When learning outcomes are clearly defined, for example completing the GED, or learning enough physics and math to enter an IT program, then internet resources and e learning courseware exists that can achieve these outcomes.
Constructivism in Action: how interactive iconography can encourage points of view and foster critical thinking
Renata Lansiquot, NYU, Steinhardt school of education
New York City, NY
This study used artifacts (pictures on the computer, 3d objects, audio and video clips) that an archeologist would have to interpret in order to build up an understanding of another culture in the past. (South American and Egyptian examples were used in the demonstration project). Each 12 year old had to defend conjectures and connect evidence with minimal guidance in order to present finding to a panel of experts, their classmates and teachers. The goal was to develop the same habits of mind as experts in the humanities have.
This relates closely to the bundle in that it illustrates how cultural knowledge (awareness) can be combined with critical thinking skills by using learning technology to simulate the work of interpreting the meaning of cultural objects. Aboriginal educators who want to transmit their culture may want to consider interactive iconography. For example, they may want to use the standard of having learners develop the same habits of mind as experts in Aboriginal culture and language use.
- Context-sensitive and Personalized Concept-based Access to Knowledge for Learning and Training Purposes.
German Nemirovskij
nemirovskij@hs-absip.de
This presentation introduced an intelligent search engine that works from a standardized input of course description information in machine readable form. The goal is to develop a common international educational space on the internet that will allow an individual student to choose personalized study curricula in their choice of language. The SWAPS (Semantic Web Approach for Personalization of Study ) takes programme and module descriptions available on the web and mines them for data that can be aggregated by an intelligent search process controlled by the individual. This approach is facilitated in Europe by the pre-existing use of a harmonized system for course descriptions in the European Union ( the Bologna format).
This relates to the bundle by pointing towards the possibility of designing and implementing an Aboriginal learning materials and curricula search engine that could mine course information on the internet and also be international. The development of a harmonized approach to course descriptions in Canada, including Aboriginal content courses, could also be considered.
- Context-sensitive and Personalized Concept-based Access to Knowledge for Learning and Training Purposes
http://mistral-project.tugraz.at/
Christian Guetl cguetl@iicm.edu
Graz University of Technology, Austria
This access system for learners is driven by queries from the learner, who is then directed to personalized resource links within the learning object of his e learning course. CSCMS ( context-sensitive concept modeling system) is designed with open wings ( java) and a subsystem for e learning systems. The idea is to link a learning concept to various knowledge repositories (example: a dictionary) and databases, digital libraries and web resources that enable the learner to answer a question about what they are learning.
This system may be adapted to help Aboriginal learners enrich their online learning experiences.
- Using Spreadsheet Technology to Assess and promote Learning in Physics
Alex Flamholz, Queensborough Community College
New Jersy, USA.
Examples were given of how spreadsheets, an inexpensive and widely available simple software tool, such as excel, can be used to illustrate physical concepts such as the stability of a ladder vs. angle, the momentum exchanged in a collison, the variation of weight with height etc. In short, the student collects the data and uses the spreadsheet to test hypotheses and develop formulas, or, uses the spreadsheet to apply a formula to data in order to solve a problem. Graphs and video clips can be added to this learning design as well.
Aboriginal technology and learning may take the point that inexpensive technology is available to support learning in math and science. In remote and rural communities where many aboriginal people live, this may provide an excellent approach for preparing people for apprenticeships, employment, and upgrading for university entrance.
- Adaptive Tutoring in Virtual Learning Worlds
Eicke Godehardt
Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics, Germany
The skills required for working in an automobile dealership in Germany are taught by computer in a virtual learning world ( VLW) using a virtual showroom, garage, office, etc. environment. The learner navigates through the program, is assessed as a novice, or beginner, and his success rate on quizzes and demonstrations triggers an adaptive tutoring response, ranging from indirect hints and mentoring comments, to direct tutorials on how to find the answer.
Aboriginal learning and technology programs in the future may want to incorporate an adaptive tutoring component along the lines of this project.
- Serious Gaming: Instructional Strategies for Career and \Technical Education
Lakshmi Prayaga
University of West Florida, USA
Middle school students were targeted by a project to introduce computer gaming into their math curriculum. Video clips on various careers are incorporated to show the relevance of the learning material to future employment.
A prototype using science fiction as a theme due to its popularity with the target group illustrated the use of the computer to solve Pythagorean problems in a coordinate system ( calculations of distance between points) in order to complete a mission. PD game studio was used to make the prototype and a flight simulator. The cost for the prototype was high ( 1 million US dollars). The multi media effects of sound, video and graphics, plus the ability to navigate a ship over alien terrain made the point that educational puzzles can be incorporated into popular gaming scenarios.
Aboriginal learning and technology may be combined in similar ways to achieve learning outcomes, although the benefits may not justify the costs. It may be possible to design a gaming environment using Aboriginal themes, for example, to motivate youth to learn basic math and science skills as well as culturally appropriate skills such as hunting and trapping and surviving on the land.
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