Ongelmanratkaisua

Alla on muutamia esimerkkitapauksia, joissa 3 – 6 luokkien oppilaat ovat ratkaisseet erilaisia ongelmia.

Tuulivoimala

3 – 4 yhdistelmäluokan oppilaat tekivät energiaan liittyvän projektin, jossa heidän tehtävänään oli pohtia mm. energian olemusta, mitata energian kulutusta (vesi, sähkö, lämmitys) koulussa ja seurata energian käyttöä kotona. Opittujen asioiden pohjalta oppilaita kannustettiin toimimaan koulussa ja kotona energia-agentteina, jotka opastavat toisia taloudellisempaan energian käyttöön.

Osana projektia mietittiin myös miten energiaa voidaan tuottaa. Liitteessä erään oppilaan ratkaisu.

 

Ohjelmointi

5 – 6 luokkien oppilaat ovat saaneet tehtäväkseen ohjelmointiin liittyviä pulmia. Eräässä projektissa esimerkiksi 6. luokan oppilaat saivat vapaasti suunnitella animaation tai pelin. Ohessa on esitelty erään työparin suunnittelemaa ja koodaamaa peliä.

 

Yrittäjä-lautapeli

5. luokan matematiikka ja yrittäjyys – kurssilla oppilaat saivat tehtäväkseen suunnitella ja valmistaa yrittäjyyteen liittyvän pelin, jossa olisi yritteliäisyyteen, aloitekykyyn, ryhmätyötaitoihin ja esimerkiksi kekseliäisyyteen ja luovuuteen liittyviä tehtäviä.

Peli muotoutui lautapeliksi, jossa ryhmä oppilaita pelaa toisia ryhmiä vastaan pelilautaan merkityllä reitillä. Ryhmän tavoite on saada oma yritys kannattavaksi keksimällä 1) bisnesidea, 2) hankkimalla yrityksen tarvitsemat resurssit ja 3) asiakkaat.

Ensin yrityksensä kannattavaksi saanut ryhmä voittaa pelin!

 

Laskuvarjo 

5. luokan oppilaat tekivät välityönä laskuvarjohyppääjän ja laskuvarjon. Tehtävässä harjoiteltiin muutamia käsityön perustekniikoita ja syvennettiin käsitystä painovoimasta. Oppilaat suunnittelivat ja tekivät ryhmänä yksinkertaisia kokeita, joiden avulla he selvittivät mitkä tekijät painovoimaan mm. vaikuttavat. Tutkimuskysymykseksi muodostui: “Mitkä tekijät saavat laskuvarjon laskeutumaan hitaasti?”

 

Paperiraketti

Aerodynamiikkaan, voimaan ja vastavoimaan liittyviä ongelmia on ratkottu esimerkiksi rakentamalla erilaisia paperiraketteja (https://www.oulu.fi/teknokas/teknoverstas_materiaalit/Paperiraketit.pdf). Tehtävässä oppilaat voivat pohtia mm. tekijöitä, joilla raketin saa lentämään mahdollisimman korkealle.

 

Technology Versus Learning

Today’s Iltasanomat had an interesting article about technology visions EU (Golden Workers project) and Finnish VTT have. A couple of ideas mentioned were: human controlled artificial limb by thought, modification of human senses like smell or hearing to the level beyond normal, accurate identification of human feelings and new user interfaces that combine human brain and computer. These ideas might sound abstract or unbelievable now, but they are coming in one form or another. Exciting? Frightening? Boring?

Exciting, I think! However, often when I read about education related technological achievements it’s not so easy to say whether they really enhance learning or not. For example www based (free) dictionaries are great help for me, but it seems that to really remember and use properly new English words I have to study them in a way in which I really don’t need computer and technology: I just have to “excercise” my brain.

Does future technology change our learning somehow? Hmm… somehow I think this question has been raised thousands of times before 🙂 Well, only think about possibility that technology changes our senses (e.g. we can smell and hear better than now). Maybe that might bring something new to learning, don’t you think?

Evaluation of WordPress Blog Affordances

We were asked to evaluate one of the tools we have used in INTRO course from social, cognitive and emotional affordance viewpoint. In this writing I shall evaluate free version of WordPress blog tool (www.wordperss.com) based on experiences I have so far. If you don’t have energy to read whole story (which is totally understandable ;)) maybe you want to read the concluding words about heart warming affordance related experience I was witnessing just a couple of days ago in Oulu university.

Affordance – What Is It?

My Webster’s concise dictionary (1997 edition) doesn’t have a word “affordance”. However, it has a word “afford” that has for example following meanings: 1) “To have sufficient means for”, 2) “To be able to do, say etc.” and 3) “To provide or furnish.” Is affordance anything close to these descriptions? I think it is. According to presentation of Pirkko Hyvönen’s “Affordances – action possibilities” (http://www.slideshare.net/LEToulu/affordances-2012) affordance provides any action based relation (possibility) between human (or animal) and his/her environment. So, for example a window in my house offers to me following affordances: I can watch through it to outside world and I can ventilate air inside house by opening it.

To be able to utilize affordance one has to perceive it and to be able to use it. There are many affordances that aren’t self-evident. My wife for example has studied singing for years using several methods. During a couple of last years she has started to use CVT (complete vocal technique) in her singing. She has said that this specific technique has helped her to develop her skills clearly. Well, it’s great that she got to know the CVT. In other words she perceived its existence just recently even though first edition of CVT book was available already in 2000. What does it require to be able to use the technique then? Well, I am not an expert on it but I have understood that you have to recognize your inner body organs, be able to control them and you have to know how their usage is linked with different singing styles and sounds. Phew, it really can require an effort to be able to use an affordance properly!

Utilization of affordances also has to do with our needs, goals and values. It’s clear that a real need for example stimulates us to explore our environment more efficiently to find out how we could use it to reach something valuable to us.

Collaboration is beneficial way to get out more from affordances. How many times have you asked you peer how to use some ICT tools instead of trying to find same information from manual? More complex the affordance is to use more clear is the value of collaboration.

As we (our needs, goals, cognitive abilities, values etc.) and our environment change also the way and the level on which we utilize affordances change. How we perceive and are able to use affordances in our environment is an on-going process.

WordPress Blog Affordances

This is the simple picture I draw 🙂 for this article about WordPress blog affordances. As the social affordance is the key function of the tool according to my opinion, I start my evaluation with social aspect.

Social

The basic idea of the blog is to forward information on any subject to others. One way to clarify blog’s social affordance is to compare it to other media used to do the same thing, namely newspaper, books, radio and TV. The blog seems to differ at least in following aspects from the others: cost, efficiency and freedom. Basically, blog doesn’t cost anything after you have a working internet connection. To be able to communicate in other media is more expensive. Usage of blog also is more efficient from the viewpoint of publishing new message and collaboration. You can publish a new message whenever you are connected to internet and it’s immediately visible to others. Others are able to notice your new post immediately, if they have decided to follow your posting (a feature in WordPress blog). Thus, others can respond instantly to your messages. So, the blog enables real time collaboration. In the case of conventional media (like newspaper) publishing takes longer and commenting original writing takes even longer even participants would be eager to communicate right away. Also there is much less control of the content of our blog writings compared to other media. In others there usually is a person in some role (e.g. chief editor of newspaper) who reviews anything that is offered to be published through the media. Reviewer thinks for example about following aspects: Does the article arouse interest? Is it profitable to publish it? Does the article fit to the general style, goals and values of the media? One great thing about blogs is that you can publish almost anything no matter how insignificant your input is for mankind! Of course there are some rules with internet communication as well especially ethical principles. Actually, there can even be some control by blog provider, but as most people are aware of ethics to a reasonable level you could think of communicating by them totally freely.

Of course the blogs aren’t a “silver bullet” improving social activity in all aspects. Even blog provides possibility to discuss efficiently so that people from any part of the world build their comments on top of each other (an enabler for deep learning and innovation), it’s not self-evident that they will do that. Communication is still between humans, humans who have free will, different interests and resources. Kind of a problem can be that people don’t find your blog or they don’t find it so fascinating that they would like to participate. Of course they still can read each other’s posts but that wouldn’t be real communication.

Still another problem or a challenge with this web 2.0 culture (where people are encouraged to create their own content instead of reading ready made books, web pages etc.) is that amount of information keeps on growing. Every new blog post is like a message in a bottle drifting in a huge sea. Who can find it and benefit from it or add its value by commenting it? It seems that something else is needed as well than sending a new post to blog. People have to interact normally with each other or they have to be known in some other way (e.g. from media). More interesting, competent, useful, rich of ideas etc. people find you more probable it is that they want to follow your blog not to mention real collaboration with you. To make blogs truly social some face to face kind of communication seems to be needed. Maybe the conclusion again is that any ICT tool is just a tool that supports normal human conduct like social activity. On the other hand to arouse people’s interest in blog writing some summarising might help! Maybe I should also think more carefully what is the essence of my thinking regarding each topic and to write just it (not stories like this ;)). Obviously some intelligent humour does help as well, maybe even poetry and beautiful and meaningful pictures of course plus strong scientific argumentation when there is a need for that … I have to admit that ability to write good stories requires skills of their own and that requires practice, right?

Cognitive

Writing itself (that can be executed with or without blog) is a valuable way to externalize one’s thoughts, notice inaccuracies in them and to develop them.

To be honest one of the things that have motivated me to write articles like this is that I have noticed them to train my English. Isn’t that something that has to do with blog’s cognitive affordance? Well, modern blog platforms like WordPress have to offer a lot more. It’s easy to add pictures, videos, simulations, mind maps and other content to blog. That makes blog content more rich than conventional sources like books and newspapers. This possibility gives a good support for understanding material more thoroughly. It’s also so easy to add links to various sources in internet to blog writing that amount of information is huge compared to conventional media. With techniques like RSS feed all the information in the blog writing can be kept up to date as well.

Another question is that how these fancy techniques web 2.0 and like offer have to do with deeper learning? Actually, I have experienced quite often that after I have read some internet articles I don’t really remember too much from them. Often reading them is a sort of entertainment or like eating a junk food. Of course the motive or a goal to read something has to do with the result. Maybe one remarkable point in blog kind of sources is that they can quickly raise ideas or interesting thoughts that can be later developed with or without ICT.

Emotional

I already mentioned good usability. WordPress blog really offers an easy way to start to write stories with showy look. That is really enjoyable! When I started to write my first blog (not a long ago) I had a kind of feeling that I have now updated my competence to 21^th century. That gave me pleasure as well. I think one great thing about blogs that surely also has to do with emotions is that they are useful way to communicate with our loved ones, if you are e.g. living longer time abroad. It’s so easy to write about your experiences, add pictures and other stuff, publish that “envelope” to several family members and close friends and to let them to communicate with you, great!

During minor studies in educational technology I have heard more than one student saying that it has been a pleasure to read other student’s blogs. I have had that same experience more than once. That has happened especially when I have come to know these people a bit more closely. After that their writings have had more meaning to me. Another thing that has to do with emotions when I have read other blogs is that I have agreed on many opinions of others. That for example have helped me to think that I might have made just right conclusions about certain things, which is encouraging.

Actually it seems that I am thinking other persons when I am reading their blogs. That (positive emotions their writings produce in me) partly moves me to discuss with them afterwards in the lectures. This brings me back to social affordance of the blog.

Social, cognitive and emotional affordances of the blog seem to interact with each other by cultivating each other somehow in a process kind of manner… Well, I think that might have to do with the process of learning!

When I think about blog it doesn’t bring to me only positive thoughts and emotions. The kind of a key question to me is how I apply blogging to my personal life so that it’s meaningful? If I would start to concentrate too much on the latest technology (e.g. How do I keep my knowledge up to date with it all the time so that I can utilize it fully?) or in all the “important” thoughts and ideas that the internet  is full of, I would become distressed. That really has happened to me every now and then especially in my previous career when I was working in software development business. So, with this the blogging I try to concentrate on simple benefits like getting to know how it can be utilized as a teacher to support learning, how it can support more efficient communication, how can I have fun with it and such. In other words I see blogging as a small part of a huge puzzle called “my life” and try to give it a priority that it deserves.

Concluding Words

There is a certain lady studying in Oulu university. She is disabled sitting in a motorized wheel chair and it seems she can’t really use her hands. She might have some other restrictions as well. She has a black big dog as an assistant and a human assistant as well. Just a couple of days ago I was walking in University corridor when I noticed the lady and the dog. The lady’s coat was in dog’s teeth and the dog was dragging the coat quite heavily away from the lady. That looked quite strange like the dog was really doing harm to lady. For a second or two I was thinking should I go to help the lady. Then I understood that the dog was doing what it was trained to do: To take the coat off from the lady. What a beautiful example of affordance I would say!

Ps. Here is a link that offers more real life examples on how dogs can help people in their every day life http://www.assistancedogs.org.au/casestudies.php. I guess dogs (and many other animals as well) are so smart that the training of them is not even that huge work!

 

My Personal Learning Environment

What is a PLE?

The PLE is an abbreviation from “personal learning environment” that describes the tools, communities, and services that constitute the individual educational platforms that learners use to direct their own learning and pursue educational goals (Educause,2009). So, from the wide viewpoint the PLE isn’t just about emphasizing the tools that are used. Really, it can be created using any other suitable tools and services in addition to computer based tools. However, in this article I focus on PLE that is based on Web 2.0 tools.

Compared to traditional learning management systems (LMS) that for example Oulu university provides by tools like Optima PLE doesn’t control user so much. Instead it let’s the user to connect personal information with outside world and allows the user to choose tools he or she likes.

From a pedagogical viewpoint a single PLE represents learner’s cognitive space that is networked with other relevant parties and is in constant change.

Social media (or Web 2.0) defines a variety of networked tools or technologies that are used in creation of PLE. There are several tools that can be used to create student’s learning space such as blogs (e.g. WordPress) and wikis (e.g. Wikispaces). In addition to mentioned tools lot of others can be used to create and modify content on learning space. Here are few examples: YouTube (video presentations), Flickr (photo sharing), RSS-feed (connects data streams between tools), Google Hangout (video meeting), MindMeister (mind map creation tool), Facebook (social networking service) etc.

Nevertheless the number of available technologies, tools and services is huge the point in PLE isn’t on them. Rather, PLE is about an idea how individuals approach the task of learning (Educause,2009). An important aspect about PLE is that it supports learner centered learning. It’s learning task can be divided to following basic phases that student is able to repeat in a loop: 1) Student creates or modifies learning material, 2) Student shares it with others and 3) Student reflects the on comments and discussion on learning material.

Here is an picture that illustrates personal learning environment:

Learners A and B represent students that use social media to create PLE. Typically they present students that work in a group (e.g. Students that are taking the course minor studies in educational technology in Oulu university.) to achieve some learning task. Each student learns specific topics by creating content to their personal learning space and sharing it with other people. In addition to students of a group some other interested person (named guest in the picture) like their teacher can contribute to learning content creation. As the idea of PLE is to connect it openly to internet, basically anyone interested could comment on the topic. Learners create material themselves but they also utilize a lot of relevant ready-made information available in internet like pictures, written text (research results, news, Wikipedia articles etc.),videos and audio sources. Media, feeds and widgets (A reusable element of graphical user interface used in student’s learning space. E.g. avatar component that is used in WordPress.) are a way to categorize content that is shown in PLE. Database presents a physical storage for all the learner defined data in PLE. It’s usually not located in the equipment learner uses but somewhere in the internet and controlled by provider of a selected learning space (e.g. Wikispaces, WordPress, Google). All the services and data handled in PLE require a specific service provider (picture has some of them as an example).

Why would I need a PLE? … Viewpoint based on research

The key findings of modern learning sciences imply that the most effective learning environments will have following characteristics: customised learning, availability of diverse knowledge sources and collaborative learning (Sawyer, 2008). All three characteristics have been taken into account at least to some level in PLE. Customised learning experience takes into account learner’s unique learning style and development level. As the idea in PLE is student centered learning he or she can choose learning style more freely than in traditional teacher centered learning (e.g. visual, auditory or tactile way of learning). When student is let to approach study subject freely development level guides the task as student obviously deals with knowledge on a level (learning of facts, understanding, application, analysis) that he or she is capable of. Also amount of produced data, it’s level of coherence and correctness reflects student’s development level. Availability of diverse knowledge sources is evident as student is able to search for data basically from anywhere (books, web sites, colleagues, experts etc.). And since creation of PLE is based on social media tools, it’s obvious that the environment provides state-of-the-art tools to efficient collaboration.

According to Attwell informal learning through asking questions, observing co-workers, and other uncoordinated and independent learning activities accounts for 80% an individual’s knowledge about his/her job. There is growing evidence that social media that is used to build PLE is increasingly supporting informal learning (Dabbagh, Kitsantas, 2011).

Another research by Harrison’s on college students blogging helped them to direct their learning, increased engagement in course material, and promoted the development of informal learning communities (Dabbagh, Kitsantas, 2012). Blogs are commonly used in PLE and as they help students to “direct their learning” they seem to have a link to self regulated learning. This is actually what is claimed based on following reasoning:”PLEs require the development and application of self regulated learning skills because PLEs are built bottom-up starting with personal goals, information management, and individual knowledge construction, and progressing to socially meditated knowledge and networked learning.” (Dabbagh, Kitsantas, 2011, 5).

So, findings of modern learning science seem to point out that PLE enhances learning especially when it’s use is integrated with formal learning that happens in courses, classrooms and schools.

Why would I need a PLE? … My own thinking

PLE surely deserves an attention as it guides to learner centered learning and collaboration and offers a learning space where self regulated learning skills can be assessed and developed. As I have just started to use PLE (web 2.0 tools) first time in my minor studies of educational technology I don’t yet have so strong personal opinion about it. To be honest my first impression is that web 2.0 tools don’t bring anything remarkable that couldn’t be achieved with more traditional tools and methods (pencil, writing of notes manually, traditional computer functions like word processor, email and internet search, discussions with school mates and experts informally and during lecture). Even though scientific results show that PLE supports achievement of goals of modern learning science, like creation of deeper conceptual understanding and coherent knowledge, time and effort is needed to make that happen both on a level of individual student and of group of students. Time and effort have to do with individual resources (mental, values, personal circumstances, priorities etc.) that are limited and vary. Enjoying learning results of a good collaboration is even more challenging not only because it requires adequate usage of personal resources by more than one student almost at the same time. If for example students are too busy to discuss in blogs with each other I don’t see that PLEs are really used to foster collaboration. As we know what is clear in theory may not be that in practice!

It seems evident to me that to increase collaboration by means of PLEs it helpful that students know each other well enough. So, for example informal discussions within studies e.g. during coffee breaks help to take full potential of PLE in use. Neither should one underestimate the competence and guidance of a teacher as he or she can direct usage of PLE in a student group to help it achieve better learning results. At this point I really want to give thanks to our teachers as I can see are applying the latest scientific methods and good practices that improve learning!

At the moment I am more exited about self regulated learning than web 2.0 tools. I see some weaknesses in my study habits and I am interested to try to weaken them. Of course there also are other features in my learning performance like cognitive skills that I would like to improve. It would be great to grasp the main idea of each study articles faster and to improve in paying attention to bigger pictures instead of details. And as internet is full of information it’s so easy to loose time and energy on focusing some less important information. I hope I can develop my self discipline during learning. Could it even be that my first steps with PLE and theory of self regulated learning have helped me to become more aware of my current study habits and to set the target to next level? Let’s hope so!

In general I warmly accept the idea of learner centered learning. Since PLE supports it I am happy to try PLE further. I also humbly admit that I have not yet learnt to use full potential of my PLE. I am sure that I will face with more positive learning experiences as I continue practice with it!

What could my PLE be like?

At the moment I am satisfied with a learning space that is a blog and created by WordPress. As my blog’s personal data is stored somewhere in internet by service provider I am able to use blog from any device (computer, smartphone, IPad etc.) that is connected to internet which is great. I could use my blog to write about interesting subjects I want to learn about. For example it might be a realistic idea to discuss experiences, good practices and the latest research result about primary school teacher profession. I could use RSS feed to connect data streams from interesting web sites to my blog. A natural discussion group within my blog could be my student mates whose social media I could follow.

In addition to writing stories I would add pictures, videos (YouTube), and photographs to blog. I have tried Flickr kind of services that I designed to distribute photos but I would rather take my photos personally. Maybe sometimes I could try to find a suitable ready-made photo from any available source. I might need to refresh my memory about user rights to ready-made content.

If there is a need to co-operate with other people (e.g. need to write a document together) I could think about using Google+ services as they support editing of the same document with other people and some other tools that support collaboration like Google Hangouts for video meetings.

In addition to literal web 2.0 tools I would use a lots of other software applications to support my learning. Here are a few examples I am using: web dictionaries, word processors like Microsoft Word and OpenOffice, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power Point, screen capture software like open source Greenshot, emails, Google search engine, WinZip etc.

Summary

As a summary here is a video that tries to describe in 60 seconds what PLE is about.

Sources

Dabbagh, N. & Kitsantas, A. (2012). Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1096751611000467

Educause. (2009). 7 Things You Should Know About Personal Learning Environments, http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-personal-learning-environments

Sawyer, R, K. (2008). Optimising Learning: Implications of Learning Sciences Research. http://www.oecd.org/site/educeri21st/40554221.pdf

From Science Fiction to Educational Technology And Back to Science Fiction

Do you like science fiction in books or in films? Many people do. What is it that make people like science fiction? Well, they may like it for various reasons: Maybe stories have a sharp analyse about our societies (their pros and cons), maybe they even give a probable prophecy about future happenings if we continue living to certain direction or they are just good fun. Still another reason why some people like science fiction is because of technology and it’s remarkable role in them.

What about achievements of modern (real) technology? Do they sound sometimes like science fiction? I think many of them initially might until you get to know their basic functionality and principle that’s just application of modern science. Here are a couple of examples… I read (already years) ago about a man who had been blind from his birth. With technology he could see now! Actually, his could at that moment see only rough shapes of obstacles in black and white colour. But he could see! What was the magic behind his seeing ability? His eyes couldn’t transfer beams of light to optic nerve in brain. Electronic replacement for his eyes was added to his head and it was connected to his optic nerve and he could see.

Do you believe that you could move objects with your mind? Yes you could! Magic you say? No, you could do it by means of modern technology. Check this video for more information.

So with the help of modern technology we can already now do amazing things. Surely it enhances our meta cognitive skills as well. We can for example read any foreign text moderately well by translating it with Google translate. Actually, I saw years ago a demo where spoken language was translated by computer in real time to another language: You want to book a hotel in a phone and receptionist speaks only foreign language… Think about one of the most difficult language (maybe Finnish :)) you aren’t able to speak. You reserve room in your mother language just like you would in your home country. Well, it seems that the demo isn’t yet working properly, since it’s not in wider use. But things like this seem to be quite soon our every day life.

What about educational technology then? How does it enhance deep learning? I for example use search engines heavily to search information. Finding information is fast, but it seems that many times I forget pieces of information almost as fast I have found them. More precisely what are the specific ways (not achievable by “old fashion” methods) in which only educational technology can enhance learning? Selwyn (2011) says that “’does technology improve learning?’ is not a straightforward question with a straightforward answer” (p.87). He seems to come to this conclusion partly by conflicting theories about learning and partly by learning’s complex binding to social, cultural, economic and politic “variables”.

Now back to science fiction, I guess. I have just started my first science course (quantitative research). I have understood that scientific quantitative research on educational technology would provide accurate information as the method is designed to tell the exact causal relation with too or more variables. To put it naively simple we could assume that educational technology = x and learning improvement is y and that their relation is x = n*y where n (e.g. n = 0, 1/2, 1, …) is unknown. By making a test environment with enough participants and other variables we could test our hypothesis. What’s the point in this? Our lecture said that if we would like to try to achieve something really remarkable in the field of human sciences (includes learning sciences) we should try to create a mathematical formula that represents functionality of brain/thinking. Ooh … sounds like a mission impossible? Anyway, that kind of even partial understanding about thinking and learning would result in more accurate scientific results when it comes to benefits of educational thinking.

Source

 Selwyn, N. (2011) Education and Technology, Key Issues and Debates, Continuum International Publishing Group

Some Thoughts After Country Specific Presentations

Thanks to every one for interesting presentations on educational technology usage in various countries (Brazil, Germany, Romania, Russia, Namibia, Italy, Mexico, etc.)! As circumstances in the world vary also a way in which technology should be applied in the field of education varies. However there are some key points every country has to focus on to be successful. Based on presentations and my former knowledge I have picked up following: leadership, pedagogically relevant technology and investment. Before I discuss these points a bit more, first a few words about educational technology in Ireland that was the theme of Gary’s and my presentation.

Educational Technology in Ireland

As our presentation says in 1997 Ireland (Republic of Ireland) was ranked in 23rd position with respect to country’s readiness for the Information Age. After that a steady progress has happened! Actually, I got an impression that Ireland has succeeded remarkably well in taking educational technology into use at schools when compared to other presented countries. Why? Firstly, I suppose that Irish people have understood that education of any nation is key to it’s success and that educational technology has a role in improving education. Another obvious reason is that Ireland is relatively small country with population less than 5 million and structure of it’s schooling system is simple. Surely co-operation and driving of any achievement are easier in a more homogeneous country. A couple of other reasons might have to do with the facts that economic growth in Ireland was very high from 1995 to 2007 and IT sector has been one of it’s economic cornerstones. It’s probable that strong knowledge of information technology has supported applying technology to education. And finally as can be seen from Ireland’s high living standard (a best quality of life in the world in 2005 according to study by Economist) the complex problems like poverty, corruption and crime haven’t prevented development of educational technology. Please, see attached our presentation “Educational technology in Ireland” (a big thanks to Gary Dullaghan from his contribution as a specialist on this area) 

 

What are some cornerstones successful educational technology should be built upon?

Leadership

There has to be an organisation that has authority and resources to drive ICT usage enhancements at schools. This organisation needs to create vision and strategy. Vision is like a dream. What is the educational dream of usage of ICT that inspires mind and touches heart? Is it something linked to values like equality, peace and prosperity prevailing in society? Or maybe it has to do with putting human cognitive skills to “next level”. Or perhaps it just promises to make workload lesser freeing human capacity to other activities than boring routine work? Anyway it should exist and stimulate people to achieve more realistic goals. According to Kankaanranta (2011, 81) these are the skills of the 21th century that form part of the goals that can be achieved with the help of technology: collaboration, forming of deeper knowledge, problem solving and innovation, self-regulation and skilful communication.
Strategy is a plan that describes how to achieve goal. It’s possibly a high level big picture that describes the main parts of a puzzle improving educational technology, their interaction and roles. Usually organisation has been appointed by the government like NCTE in Ireland.

It’s important that leadership doesn’t act like a dictator but co-operates with every relevant party like representatives of other countries, business and researchers of various topics (learning sciences, educational psychology, computer science, education, sociology, information sciences etc.). Of course also ordinary teachers (even pupils and their parents) have a word to say on how technology should be developed and used!

Leading and driving development of educational technology is a huge work as it is so complex project, not the least because technology evolves so fast. I was impressed when I watched NCTE web-pages. Here are a few things they provide: free training (online, face to face) for teachers to keep their ICT knowledge up to date, detailed instructions and real life use cases that so how a schools can start to utilize ICT, a lot of information on best practices on how to use technology in teaching, help to find software that is appropriate to Irish curriculum, tips on how disabled (e.g. people with hearing problem) persons can use ICT in their studies and support on internet security.

To get a more concrete understanding what it takes to lead take a look to web-pages of NCTE … Here are a couple of links that concretize how much work is needed to take technology in use in schools. The first video is a good practice that shows how videos can be used in learning a foreign language.

This links gives an idea how teachers are supported (free online courses, face to face course) to keep their ICT knowledge up to date http://www.ncte.ie/courses/

This link helps to understand what hardware is needed, how to take it into use and how to maintain it http://www.ncte.ie/Technology/

This link has a detailed step by step instructions that guide on understanding e.g. what kind of equipment, roles and processes are needed for any school to succesfully take ICT into use http://www.ncte.ie/elearningplan/handbook/

This link has several short videos showing how technology can be used in practice to support learning http://www.ncte.ie/GoodPractice/

 

Pedagogically Relevant Technology

The study of ICT usage in Irish schools says: “In recognising the failures of past initiatives future initiatives should not be presented as ICT initiatives but instead as initiatives in teaching and learning with relevance for all teachers.” (McGarr, 2008).

Quotation seems to be in line with the idea that the usage of technology at schools should be guided by research findings. What then are these findings? In general according to Selwyn (2011, p. 25) “Perhaps the most frequently discussed benefit of digital technology use is its role in supporting and enhancing learners’ cognitive processes and thinking skills.”. One concrete application of this sentence could be for example an animation that shows how nucleus of an atom is structured. These are some other learning and teaching related principles according to researcher findings: deeper conceptual understanding, building on prior knowledge, reflection, scaffolding learning, customised learning, usage of diverse knowledge sources and distributed knowledge (Sawyer, 2008). If interested see more on what they mean from the link in the end of this writing. But is it possible to make concrete and simple summaries that connect the latest research results with better learning and teaching? I mean something that can be concluded for example from the sentence:”Learning scientists have discovered that deep learning is more likely to occur in complex social and technological environments.” (Brandsford et al. 2000). Part of the point seems to be that as technology makes possible to communicate with huge amount of other people from many nations time and place independently it supports creating complex social learning environments which support deep learning. What about technology’s ability to present information in various ways (text, hypertext, audio, video, simulation etc.)? Does it also support better learning and teaching results? I would say yes. How then? Let’s leave that as a subject of some future writing 😉

On the other hand it makes sense that something that is relevant for teachers doesn’t have to be always scientifically proved, if it just seems to work according to common sense. If teacher for example has found out that he can motivate kids to concentrate better on important topics by letting them to play computer games why would he not use that method? Or think about a teacher who is close to his retirement age and has never really become familiar with technology. Does he find it relevant to learn to use web 2.0 applications in his teaching? Possibly not. Why not let him to find a way to use technology he is comfortable with or let him refrain from it totally. Surely kids would find other classes where to benefit from ICT.

I would like to link also learning principle of customised learning to relevant usage of technology. As each teacher has his or her unique circumstances, skills and taste also students have their unique learning style and development level. So, well designed technology can be used to tailor the presentation of material appropriately (Sawyer, 2008,7). Here are examples of different ways to use ICT supporting different learning styles http://www.ncte.ie/GoodPractice/

Following pictures try to summarize what educational technology is about according to my opinion. It’s not a Swizz knife that can be used efficiently in every learning situation (sometimes pencil is better). Or we could say that the same technology doesn’t apply to all persons, since their tastes and learning styles differ. On the other hand when used properly in a right situation it can boost learning and bring it to a new level in the same way as chainsaw can be used to cut more wood at the same time and with less energy as ordinary axe.

Interesting thing about technology is that many of the features of educational technology that are being used now have been discovered a long time ago! According to Selwyn already in the end of 1960s educational computing had developed into a number of forms, such as: 1) Computer presents material to the learner and asks questions about it. Based on learner’s responds computer decides how to continue to achieve specified goal. 2) The computer helps the learner to acquire skills by repetitive practice (e.g. Training of multiplication table). 3) The computer gives learner a problem to solve and discusses the result. 4) The computer simulates elaborate dialogue with learner. 5) The computer provides simulated versions of experiments with learner observing result of his actions on a screen. 6) The computer provides large files of information on database that the learner can browse selectively.

So the question arises: You researchers and inventors in your dusty chambers what amazing things are you hiding from us?

 

Investment

It’s all about money and not a single nation has too much of it! What is the priority of educational technology in each country? If schools don’t for example have a proper heating, it’s understandable that money shall be put to something else than in technology. There has to be balance. Putting money to things that improve basic human rights (e.g. equality, health care and reducing famine) is of course more important than educational technology even though our subject has a link to them. I think that education (with or without technology) is a key thing that helps any nation to fight against problems.

Maybe one way to enhance usage of ICT in less developed countries is to think how available technology can be used. The newest technology is not necessarily needed. Just only think what broadcasting well prepared and locally relevant lectures by radio to distant areas in a poor country can do! Of course the richest nations and international companies have an important role to play here as well. Nokia for example has had a strategy already years ago to connect one billion people to internet with mobile phones. Even though companies have selfish interests these kind of aims support enhancing educational technology in certain areas. How? As mobile phones are much cheaper than computers developing countries have better possibilities to utilize internet in education. This became evident in the presentation of Namibia.

It’s natural that each country will think investments to technology from their perspective. The fact that western countries are leading on this front doesn’t automatically mean that other countries should follow them blindly by trying to reach same level of usage. One relevant question on this connection is what brings happiness? Sometimes and for some people it might be e.g. simple life close to nature with reading and writing skills without the latest technology!

As the lack of money influences also well developed countries schooling systems in all the countries need to prioritize their needs. They might need to ask which is more important: To share modest educational technology all around a country or to concentrate to build some technologically world class schools. As technology develops fast it’s really important to evaluate what is mandatory (pedagogically relevant) technology? There is no need to update hardware and software at the pace of new releases as part of the game is that the business is trying to create new needs to us. For example some time ago there wasn’t a product like Apple’s IPad. Now it’s widespread and popular but is it essential tool needed in educational technology? Definitely not!

This is quite nice real life example from Irish primary school showing that taking ICT into use can start from by small steps that doesn’t require that much money (First part of the video deals with general benefits that result of ICT usage, story about acquiring equipment starts in 1:33).

 

Finally

Like learning development of educational technology is a process. How does our understanding about educational technology change on a shorter period of time during these minor studies? What kind of technology is used in education in coming years? Let’s find out!

 

Sources:

Education and Technology Key Issues and Debates, Selwyn, Oliver (2011)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland
Opetusteknologia koulun arjessa, Kankaanranta (edit.), Marja (2011) http://ktl.jyu.fi/ktl/julkaisut/luettelo/2011/d094

Optimising Learning: Implications of Learning Sciences Research, Sawyer, R, K. (2008).

The development of ICT across the curriculum in Irish schools: a historical perspective, McGarr, Oliver (2008)
2012-09-14 Lecture: Introduction to Technology-Enhanced Learning by Prof. Sanna Järvelä

Mindmap

 

 

 

 

 

This is my Mindmeister link