tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78455015026288659362024-03-27T16:53:28.425-07:00Vizit SolutionsAlex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-52766867238988890082017-02-20T16:58:00.001-08:002017-02-20T16:58:08.596-08:00The Unique Value of Open Educational Resources<style type="text/css">
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<div class="sidebar">
Open and Education are concepts that fit together and compliment each other
incredibly well.
</div>
<p>
Open and Education are concepts that fit together and compliment each other
incredibly well. We will look at one aspect, the overlap of <a href
= "http://opensource.org/definition">open source</a> and education that is
open educational resources (OER). For something that is such a natural fit,
OER is comparatively unknown and underutilized.
</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/katyamuses">@katyamuses</a> what is <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OER?src=hash">#OER</a>?</p>— Tabitha Devore (@TeacherTabitha) <a href="https://twitter.com/TeacherTabitha/status/532699614667755520">November 13, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/TeacherTabitha">@TeacherTabitha</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/katyamuses">@katyamuses</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OER?src=hash">#OER</a> r open educ resources, materials that r openly lic so that they can b freely reused + redist <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EdTechBridge?src=hash">#EdTechBridge</a></p>— K12 Open Ed (@k12opened) <a href="https://twitter.com/k12opened/status/532701331358633984">November 13, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/k12opened">@k12opened</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TeacherTabitha">@TeacherTabitha</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/katyamuses">@katyamuses</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OER?src=hash">#OER</a> is much more than free content. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EdTechBridge?src=hash">#EdTechBridge</a></p>— Alex Kluge (@AlexVKluge) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexVKluge/status/532703306842636288">November 13, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>
There is a well established, oft cited definition for OER.
</p>
<blockquote>
teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise,
that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license
that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with
no or limited restrictions.
<footer class="footer">
<a href = "http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/WPFD2009/English_Declaration.html">World
Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress</a>
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>
This permissive licensing is the minimum requirement for OER. What is the
"much more" that I referred to in the tweet? What more can we do to increase the value
of OER, both for the educational community and for the producers of the content?
Can we build something akin to a rubric for accessing the value of an open
educational project and how well we put that project to use?
</p>
<p>
The value and perception of OER strongly depends on perspective. OER presents
different value propositions to educational institutions that consume them,
students that consume them, educational institutions that produce them, and
companies that produce them. And perhaps the most important value proposition,
and definitely the least appreciated, the <em>value to the student who produces
content</em>.
</p>
<h4>Licensing</h4>
<div class="sidebar">
</div>
<p>
We have established the minimum requirement of a permissive license. These
licenses take many forms, ranging to completely unfettered, public domain,
content to the <a href = "http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html">GNU AGPL
V3</a> and the <a
href = "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons
noncommercial noderivatives</a> license. Arguably, this last example is so
restrictive that it is not an open license.
</p>
<p>
<a href = "http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/">As soon as a work is created, it is
protected by copyright</a>. As soon as a story is written, a painting made, a
photograph taken, or a film shot, it is copyrighted. This means that the creator,
or their employer, owns the intellectual property rights for the original work.
Like other forms of property, the owner can sell those rights, trade them, or
simply give them away.
</p>
<p>
This is why there are so many different open source licenses, and so many uses of
the phrase open educational resources. The creator of the original intellectual
property can follow almost any path they want to share, trade, or sell it. The license
is the terms that the creator attaches to the use of their creation.
</p>
<p>
Luckily, one of the most popular open license sets, Creative Commons, has
a <a href = "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/">very good explanation</a>
of their licenses. One of the reasons for their popularity is the simplicity
and straight forward nature of their licenses, and their focus on content, not
software. If you are looking for an open source license for your content, this
is a great place to start. GitHub, a large open source repository, also provides
a <a href = "http://choosealicense.com/">guide for choosing an open license</a>,
this one targeted more to the software development community.
</p>
<p>
An interesting side effect of attaching a permissive license to your work is
that you are immediately conscious of the need to design the project for uses
and interests beyond your own. It's still early and we have already touched
on constructionism.
</p>
<h4>Cost</h4>
<p>
The cost of textbooks, and education in general, is increasing dramatically. This is placing an
increasing burden on students and school districts.
</p>
<figure class="center">
<img class="fullWidth" alt="82% increase in textbook prices 2002-2012" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogDj024lKu9OCCxljbyAqgzOmWj5C7pNbbxAqWcfsF1I3vbVTj2dnrBduPK9Dh8m4FORJLEuYIRmed6gdc3KzOfSGM2tJ3LXtOtc8E4c29xXUU-KtnYqlIRS3WaXZ2o1-VxRUmj6HQYI/s1600/TextbookPrices.png">
<figcaption>
Textbook prices are <a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/655066.pdf">increasing dramatically</a>.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>
OERs promise to displace much of this cost. As tempting as it may be, it is important that schools and
school districts not simply fixate on the cost savings. The most promising path includes a feedback loop
where the the consumers of OER also invest in its improvement. Redirect some of the cost savings to resources
for developing and obtaining expertise around the use of OER, and over a slightly longer term develop the
ability to contribute to the creative process. Repeating this feedback loop over even a fraction of the
3 million teachers in the US will create a powerful force behind the improvement and adoption of open
educational resources.
</p>
<h4>Value</h4>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>A4: There are endless <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OERs?src=hash">#OERs</a> out there! As a teacher you need to be willing to investigate & find what works for you! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EdTechBridge?src=hash">#EdTechBridge</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/uneedu?src=hash">#uneedu</a></p>— Emilie (@EmilieNewbern) <a href="https://twitter.com/EmilieNewbern/status/535231362262106112">November 20, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>
Just because it is free and open does not make it a good fit for education,
moreover, it does not make it a good fit for <em>your</em> classroom. Conversely,
even if the content is not targeted to education, you may find it a great fit to
your class. So what are some of the things we need to look for the evaluate the
usefulness and fit of a particular open educational resource?
</p>
<h4>The 5Rs</h4>
<p>
Ideally, OER provides all 5 of these values, commonly refreeed to as the 5Rs.
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Retain: </strong>Users have the right to make, archive, and "own" copies of the content;</li>
<li><strong>Reuse: </strong> Content can be reused in its unaltered form;</li>
<li><strong>Revise</strong>: Content can be adapted, adjusted, modified or altered;</li>
<li><strong>Remix</strong>: The original or revised content can be combined with other content to create something new;</li>
<li><strong>Redistribute</strong>: Copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised or remixed form.</li>
</ul>
<p>
Retention can have a surprisingly strong effect, especially for students who normally can not markup and
retain their text from year to year.
</p>
<h4>Correctness</h4>
<p>
A common and basic criteria for any resource, educational or not, open or
not, is correctness. Instructional material, no matter how well written, well
designed, or well marketed, is worse than useless if it is not correct. A messaging
utility is a poor investment if it loses data or misdirects messages, no matter
the cost.
</p>
<p>
Open source materials have a clear advantage here. The inclusive, community driven,
nature of open source makes it more likely that the community will provide constructive
feedback. A well organized open source project will invite the community
to contribute updates and corrections directly. Such constructive community involvement
is important for the health of open source projects.
</p>
<h4>Pedagogy</h4>
<p>
You can not talk about educational resources without talking about pedagogy.
However, open resources can be used directly to teach, they can be used
as resources in a larger project, or they can themselves be the target of
an educational project. The evaluation of any resource will depend on how
it is integrated into your class.
</p>
<p>
For direct teaching, the open resources often present the content as a whole,
as with <a href = "http://ocw.mit.edu/">MIT's OpenCourseWare</a>, <a href
= "https://www.boundless.com/textbooks/">Boundless</a> or <a href
= "http://openstaxcollege.org/">OpenStax College</a>. For such complete content,
we can ask questions such as:
<ul>
<li>Are there clear goals and expected results?</li>
<li>Does the product reflect an understanding of how people learn?</li>
<li>Is the level of the content appropriate to my class?</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
Many open resources encourage you to adapt and mix them with your own content
and sometimes other content. When open content is mixed into existing content,
evaluation is based on fundamentally different questions. Now we must look
first at how the new content compliments the existing content.
<ul>
<li>Does it fill in a gap?</li>
<li>Does it present the same material through a different lens?</li>
<li>And most importantly, does it integrate with your content and with your presentation style?</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
Examples of content that can be incorporated into a larger whole include the
<a href = "http://3d.si.edu/">Smithsonian 3D collection</a>, <a href
= "http://www.wga.hu/index1.html">Web Gallery of Art</a>, and the author's
own <a href = "http://www.vizitsolutions.com/portfolio/vfield/">mathematics
and physics visualizations</a>.
</p>
<p>
Another interesting and valuable set of open resources for education is open data.
Google has an excellent collection of <a href
= "https://www.google.com/publicdata/directory">public datasets</a>, including
extensive tools to visualize and analyze the data. CERN has recently made available
<a href = "http://opendata.cern.ch/">extensive particle physics data along with
software for its analysis</a>. <a href
= "http://www.census.gov/data/data-tools.html">US census data</a> is available
including some <a href = "http://www.census.gov/dataviz/">wonderful visualizations</a>,
one of which details <a href
= "http://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/stem/stem-html/">college
majors and eventual careers</a>. Data such as this can be used as an investigative
tool by students, and in the case of the census data even to inform policy
for the educator.
</p>
<p>
It is important to select data from high quality sources. It is easy to find data
that is reflects bias on the part of the researcher or collection agency.
</p>
<p>
A far richer set of options is available for #OER than for a packaged end product
because the open product is more open to mixing into the complete solution.
</p>
<p>
We will see a little bit later how a well organized open source project is
more likely to get this, and many other factors, right than other approaches.
</p>
<h4>Myths</h4>
<p>
<!-- Verbatim from teaching blog -->
There are also <a href
= "http://oerpolicy.eu/myths-and-obstacles-open-educational-resources-are-facing/">a
number of myths</a> surrounding open source material. This results in additional
effort to rework or reinvent already existing solutions. Experience has shown that
where it is reasonable, it is better to utilize an existing solution and implement
customizations and additions where necessary.
</p>
<table class="center fullwidth">
<colgroup>
<col style="width:60%">
<col style="width:20%">
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>OER Myths</th>
<th>Prevalence</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Not professional</td>
<td>61%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Difficult to find/use</td>
<td>56%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Time-consuming for teachers</td>
<td>50%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lacking support</td>
<td>39%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lack of business models</td>
<td>39%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Unreliable</td>
<td>33%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Unsustainable</td>
<td>31%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Other</td>
<td>14%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Can lead to centralization</td>
<td>3%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Unfair practice</td>
<td>3%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Disruptive</td>
<td>3%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<caption>
Frequently encountered arguments and fears against OER from the <a href
= "http://oerpolicy.eu/myths-and-obstacles-open-educational-resources-are-facing/">myths and
obstacles paper</a> cited above.
</caption>
</table>
<p>
We've seen some myths, how about some <a href
= "https://oerresearchhub.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/oerrh-evidence-report-2014.pdf">facts</a> from
actual <a href = "http://oerresearchhub.org/2013/11/07/saylor-survey-report/">studies</a>?
</p>
<table class="center fullwidth">
<colgroup>
<col style="width:60%">
<col style="width:20%">
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>OER Facts</th>
<th>Prevalence</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tr>
<td>increased interest</td>
<td>60.1%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Increased enthusiasm</td>
<td>59%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>interested in a wider range of subjects</td>
<td>50%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Increased independence and self-reliance</td>
<td>48%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>teachers share resources online</td>
<td>43.3%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>teachers publish resources with a Creative Commons license</td>
<td>12.4%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=2><a href = "https://openstaxcollege.org/news/openstax-college-saves-students-an-estimated-3-7-million-this-year">OpenStax</a> saved students over $3.7M in 2013</td>
</tr>
<caption>
Some actual facts about open educational resources.
</caption>
</table>
<p>
To be honest, using OER does require more effort, deeper thought, and a greater level of expertise than more
traditional approaches. But we are all in the 90th percentile, right? Further, if we distribute this effort
among us all, and form a strong ecosystem, the effort will be reduced dramatically. This is one of the main goals
for this writeup. To get you involved not only in using, but in contributing to the OER ecosystem.
</p>
<h4>Usability</h4>
<p>
It is almost a tradition that open source products have poor usability.
The target audience has often made the tradeoff of cost vs usability
and polish. For educational content though, this is largely an
unacceptable tradeoff. Wrestling with the design or interface will
quickly distract and alienate the learner.
</p>
<p>
Much progress has been made on this front over the past several years,
with open source products matching and sometime eclipsing their shrink
wrapped rivals.
</p>
<h4>Accessibility</h4>
<p>
Accessibility is a close cousin to usability. Instruction, no matter
how amazing it might be, is of little value if the learner can not
access it.
</p>
<p>
So, what are the big barriers of accessibility. The traditional set
of barriers are physical limitations such as blindness or hearing
loss. Addressing these requires both intent and specialized knowledge.
</p>
<p>
Once again, feedback is important. A development community will almost never
have complete coverage of the spectrum of hardware and software in use. Systems
and combinations where things misbehave are important to know. Further, accessibility
can be a strong differentiator in online reviews of content.
</p>
<p>
There are some great resources for <a href
= "http://web.archive.org/web/20140905214650/http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/resources/ae">implementing
and evaluating accessibility</a>.
</p>
<p>
New with the advent of technology is the so called digital divide. We can
quickly recognize the opportunity for both <a href
= "https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-10-20-open-book-test-can-a-cost-saving-measure-also-raise-performance">
lower cost and higher quality resources</a>. However, a closer look quickly
reveals that to take advantage of these opportunities, such as replacing
printed commercial textbooks with open digital content, required widespread
digital devices, connectivity and expertise. These things are not equally
distributed. So, perversely, free resources can actually increase the digital
divide.
</p>
<p>
Technology is such an important aspect of modern education that addressing the
digital divide is a priority for local, <a href
= "http://www.connectednation.org/sites/default/files/tx_education_report.pdf">state</a>
and <a href = "http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/connected_fact_sheet.pdf">federal</a>
<a href = "http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/technology/obama-program-to-connect-public-housing-residents-to-web.html?_r=0">governments</a>.
</p>
<p>
The BYOD trend is another two edged sword. Students using their own devices to
access and work with open educational resources is a powerful concept. It moves
learning beyond specific devices and content provided by the school into a more
real world context. This breaks the association of learning is something that happens
in the classroom and transform it into a lifelong process that happens everywhere.
However, it brings the unequal access to technology into sharp focus.
</p>
<p>
Even when students can keep OER, with their own notes and additions, after the course is
over, it is of limited use if they don't have their own device. This is another example of
how the educational, and OER, ecosystem is complex and layered. But that just means that
there are many avenues to contribute.
</p>
<h4>Availability & Findability</h4>
<p>
Even the best content has limited value if you can't find it. This means that you
have to know to look for it, and there has to be an easy path to find it. This is
the first time we will see a significant business value behind OER as the open
content becomes part of the sales funnel. OER can be a great way to quickly gain market
awareness, and, as we will see, to build a strong user community.
</p>
<p>
<a href = "http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/oer.html">Between two-thirds and
three-quarters of all faculty classify themselves as unaware on OER</a>. This shows
clearly that one of the most important thresholds we need to cross is one of simple
awareness.
</p>
<p>
<a href = "https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=2013-12-25%202017-01-25&q=%2Fm%2F0drb3,PhET,kahn%20academy,%2Fm%2F05dcsm,%2Fm%2F02mdg">Google
Trends</a> gives us an interesting picture of interest in a few OER topics, and how it has changed over time.
</p>
<figure class="center">
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ssl.gstatic.com/trends_nrtr/909_RC03/embed_loader.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
trends.embed.renderExploreWidget("TIMESERIES", {"comparisonItem":[{"keyword":"/m/05dcsm","geo":"","time":"all"},
{"keyword":"creative commons","geo":"","time":"all"},
{"keyword":"phet","geo":"","time":"all"},
{"keyword":"kahn academy","geo":"","time":"all"},
{"keyword":"/m/0wbnbch","geo":"","time":"all"}],
"category":0,"property":""},
{"exploreQuery":"date=all&q=%2Fm%2F05dcsm,creative%20commons,phet,kahn%20academy,%2Fm%2F0wbnbch"});
</script>
<figcaption>
PhET stands out with its strong increase in search queries and brand identity.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>
Of these terms, the most striking thing is that only <a href = "http://phet.colorado.edu/">PhET</a>
shows a strong upward trend. Interest in <a href = "https://www.oercommons.org/">Creative Commons</a>
has a gentle raise until late 2011, then shows a slight decline over time. Even <a href
= "https://www.khanacademy.org/">Khan Academy</a> enjoyed a spike from a <a href
= "http://www.cbsnews.com/news/khan-academy-the-future-of-education-02-09-2012/">March 2012 60 Minutes</a>
story but was flat afterwards.
</p>
<p>
It's also interesting to look at the <a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo">web traffic
rankings</a> for some of the largest OER collections. We throw in Pearson, a high profile,
but not open, education company for comparison. The open education sites have respectable
numbers with the well connected Khan Academy leading the traffic race. Apparently marketing
is effective for OER. No one organization has a commanding presence in the OER marketplace
leaving considerable room for growth and evolution.
</p>
<table class="center fullwidth">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Site</th>
<th>Global Traffic Rank</th>
<th>US Traffic Rank</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href = "http://www.boundless.com/">Boundless Learning</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/www.boundless.com">5,219</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/www.boundless.com">2,727</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href = "http://cnx.org/">Connexions</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fcnx.org">50,515</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Fcnx.org">18,301</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href = "https://www.oercommons.org/">Creative Commons</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/creativecommons.org">5,492</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/creativecommons.org">4,282</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href = "https://www.khanacademy.org/">Khan Academy</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/khanacademy.org">632</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/khanacademy.org">167</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href = "https://www.oercommons.org/">OER Commons</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/oercommons.org">114,492</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/oercommons.org">29,952</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href = "https://openstax.org/">OpenStax</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/openstax.org">75,181</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/openstax.org">18,985</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href = "http://www.redhat.com/">Pearson</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/pearson.com">5,459</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/pearson.com">1,187</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href = "http://phet.colorado.edu/">PhET</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/colorado.edu">3,391</a></td>
<td class="numeric"><a href = "http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/colorado.edu">1,378</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<caption>
Kahn Academy and PhET show how to build an audience with OER.
</caption>
</table>
<p>
The table shows a snapshot of traffic for select OER sites. We clearly see these sites have a slightly higher
proportion of traffic in the US than the rest of the world. Also interesting is how that traffic is changing
over time. They are showing significant growth over time, with OpenStax as an extreme case.
</p>
<figure class="center">
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoQDcKYwpgCYN7glLTPVZlAPMnuplqKCVzzd5X6al2d9z2rFi0p0WhlMMFNwKW3HXdJ_hcxuFDJm6ieBl4mU6UGNBelO3aDEUdKg29tHNM0KlbjVk6tm2GsypXoU7YLQ5iTHSLe5YGEvY/s1600/alexa-openstax.png">
<figcaption>
The traffic for OpenStax shows a massive increase over the past year, likely due to expanded use of their
textbooks.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>
Comparing traffic statistics with search trends leads to some interesting conclusions. While clearly
dominaning traffic, Khan Academy is far from the most active search term. PhET, which dominates search,
is closer to the mean for traffic.
</p>
<p>
Clearly the principle driver for traffic to many educational sites is not brand search. Indeed, for the
author, virtually no traffic comes from beand driven search. Almost all traffic comes from content driven
subject matter search. Reputation and referrals from faculty and students also has a significant impact
on overall traffic.
</p>
<h4 class="center">More to come soon</h4>Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-49529278092794640452014-10-15T15:58:00.000-07:002014-11-08T19:03:26.755-08:00Why We Stick With Slides and Other Archaic Practices <p>
Despite a vast sea of problems with slide presentations (aka PowerPoint), we continue their use.
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href = "http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/684871/Death-By-Powerpoint.htm">Death By PowerPoint</a></li>
<li><a href = "http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?_r=0">We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint</a></li>
<li><a href = "http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint">The Cognitive Style Of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
Rather than moving away from slides, this has spawned a whole industry on improving slide presentations.
The N.Y. Times article raises the point that PowerPoint is deeply embedded in the military culture. This
clearly extends beyond military culture, PowerPoint is deeply embedded in the educational culture as well.
How did we get here?
</p>
<p>
In certain contexts slides are highly effective. Most of us have had positive experiences with them used
in an educational context, building an association between slides and effective presentation. Further, the
presenters included faculty in positions of authority, building an association between slides and success,
which we want to emulate. This effect is magnified by the Microsoft marketing machine, which has placed
into the field, according to Tufte, several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint turning out
trillions of slides each year.
</p>
<p>
So we have something that is proven to be successful, albeit in a limited context, and it is backed by a
large, over-hyping, marketing machine. It is no surprise that it has obtained a massive market presence,
and that an entire ecosystem has grown up around it. This ecosystem includes significant business interests
and self proclaimed experts who are motivated to expand their reach as far as possible.
</p>
<p>
This brings us to an important point. Many of the people who produce this static content think they are
doing a good job and some actively oppose more advanced techniques.
</p>
<p>
In reality, the effective contexts for slides are generally associated with situations where the presenter
is the center of attention. The slide is limited to the role of a visual aid and the dynamism and interactivity
is provided by the speaker.
</p>
<p>
Modern digital content provides an entirely new context that allows, even demands, an entirely new approach.
In this new context the student interacts directly with the content with no intermediary. In this new context
the interactivity and the adaptation to the student is provided by the content itself.
</p>Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-89421596943077107182014-02-26T15:26:00.000-08:002014-09-15T01:49:28.194-07:00Common Ground In Teaching And Tech<div class="sidebar">
Teaching and Tech have much more in common than a few letters.
</div>
<p>
Teaching and tech have much more in common than a few letters. Two decades ago
American software engineering was perceived as falling behind the overseas
competition, just as education is today. The software industry responded with
innovation in practice, governance, management, and culture. The software
industry was not the first to confront this, as the manufacturing sector had
faced, and continues to face, a similar challenge. Indeed, the software industry
was able to leverage significant ideas and concepts from manufacturing and
repurpose them to improving their own practices. Education now has the opportunity
to leverage the lessons from both technology and manufacturing.
</p>
<h4>Widespread Misunderstandings</h4>
<div class="sidebar">
The public perception of these professions is deeply flawed.
</div>
<p>
When I refer to software engineering I do not mean simply writing code, but the
entire process built around understanding users, their mental models, their needs,
their expectations, and translating these into high quality products of value to
the customer.
</p>
<p>
Teaching as well is <a href =
"http://www.teachingquality.org/content/misunderstanding-teaching-and-why-we-must-advocate-our-profession">
frequently</a> <a href =
"http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/22/you-think-you-know-what-teachers-do-right-wrong/">misunderstood</a>.
Effective teaching is far more <a href =
"http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/267">subtle and nuanced</a> than simply
presenting information to students. The best teachers build relationships
with their students, find effective ways to make the content relevant and
interesting, and to the extent possible adjust the content to the specific needs
of the students, some even engage the parents. And that's on a good day.
</p>
<p>
The understanding from outside either profession is significantly different from
that of actual practitioners. The public perception of these professions is deeply
flawed. Even more damaging is that the misunderstanding sometimes extends into the
management and policy making circles. Importantly for the reader, many technologists
and educators do not truly understand one another. My intent is to foster communication
and cooperation by pointing out strong parallels between these two schools of thought.
</p>
<h4>Impetus for Change</h4>
<div class="sidebar">
One of the significant concerns is that <i>America is falling behind</i>.
</div>
<p>
Both professions have confronted, and are confronting, a crisis of confidence.
For both teaching and tech, one of the significant concerns is that <i>America
is falling behind</i>. For teaching we see this almost daily in <a href
= "http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education-july-dec13-pisa_12-03/">the media</a>.
Software engineering has a head start confronting this issue. In 1993 Edward
Yourdon portrayed the <a href =
"http://www.amazon.com/Decline-American-Programmer-Edward-Yourdon/dp/013191958X">Decline
and Fall of the American Programmer</a> relative to their international competition.
</p>
<p>
In both cases this precipitated collections of procedural and technological solutions.
For software this included the <a href = "http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational/rup/">Rational
Unified Process</a> and several Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) <a href
= "http://www.borland.com/products/together/">tools</a>, which turned out not to be a panacea.
Indeed, the misapplication, the overly rigid application, of the Rational Process was a
factor in the raise of <a href = "http://agilemanifesto.org/">agile methods</a>.
</p>
<p>
The important aspect is that the recognition of an issue lead to a period of
experimentation and trial, and only after this period did more fruitful approaches
emerge. Agile methodologies themselves underwent a Cambrian explosion of sorts,
followed by a Darwinian evolution leaving behind more fit solutions, and more
openness to change.
</p>
<p>
Instruction faces a similar situation to software engineering after Yourdon
published his 1993 book. There is a recognition that there is a problem, and many
solutions are materializing. With MOOCS, apps, web apps, videos, CCSS, and standardized
testing all making a showing, it is unclear which approaches will provide the greatest
advantage in the future. Each approach has its champions, but clearly none of them
stand alone as a complete solution. This plethora of solutions reflects varying
perceptions of exactly what the issues are with education. Perhaps, though,
something can be borrowed from the software engineering venue and teaching can
embrace change and <a href =
"http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2014/02/empower-teachers-data-and-they-can-spark-change">data
driven</a> adaptation. Moreover, in software engineering this shift to agile was
a grass roots movement.
</p>
<h4>Location Independence</h4>
<div class="sidebar">
In most cases there is no need for a physical presence.
</div>
<p>
Both education and software are rooted in the transfer of information. In most cases
there is no need for a physical presence or for the transfer of material goods. This
reduces the importance of location and increases the importance of interactions. Indeed,
the realization is coming to fruition that face to face time is better utilized by
focusing on personal interactions during office hours or in class time.
</p>
<p>
A software engineer can collaborate with, and market to anywhere on the planet
without leaving the neighborhood coffee shop. Similarly, many universities now
have <a href = "http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm">a global reach</a>.
This globalization directly effects the consumer as well. Online web services and
online instruction on almost any topic can be accessed from almost anywhere. Where
previously I might visit an accountant to process my taxes, now I can easily prepare
my taxes online with a well known and trusted service. Generally though, determining
which products and resources represent a true value is difficult. While some resources
are undoubtedly first class, others <a href =
"http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/15/americans-doubt-the-rigor-and-quality-of-online-education">fall
far short</a>.
</p>
<p>
Global access to information and services reduces the value of memorization, and
significantly increases the value of critical thinking to ascertain which are truly
useful, and sometimes whether online information is correct.
</p>
<h4>Assessment and tests</h4>
<div class="sidebar">
Testing is a means to an end, not a primary goal.
</div>
<p>
Assessment easily warrants its own discussion in either field. We limit ourselves
to outlining a few relationships between assessment in software and in education.
<a href = "http://www.thoughtworks.com/continuous-integration">Continuous testing</a>
is a generally accepted part of modern software development. There is a small school
that feels that the testing should
<a href = "http://butunclebob.com/ArticleS.UncleBob.TheThreeRulesOfTdd">drive the development process</a>,
<a href = "http://java.dzone.com/articles/programmers-without-tdd-will">and some people are simply confused
about the difference between the two</a>.
</p>
<p>
Predominantly, testing is viewed as an important step in the production of quality software;
as a means to an end, but not a primary goal. Considerable effort has gone into creating software
testing tools and techniques. A common goal is to maximize the value of the tests <i>while
minimizing their impact on the development process</i>. For example unit tests are designed
to run quickly and in an automated fashion. Lightweight testing, or better yet <a href =
"http://www.knewton.com/adaptive-learning-intro/">adaptive learning</a>, can play a similar
role in education.
</p>
<p>
At the end of the day, software is valued by success in the marketplace, by delivering
value to the customer. This is a fundamental difference between software and education,
choice. The market can choose any alternative, of if the software does not address any
need, the market may choose to forgo it entirely. This provides a powerful incentive
to correctly assess the value and correctness of software.
</p>
<p>
Education, on the other hand, is compulsory. This, with a few exceptions, places the burden
of assessment on the educational process itself, and shifts it from a question of market
acceptance to one of accountability.
</p>
<p>
The public perception of testing in education is dominated by high stakes, high stress tests
like final exams, midterms, SATs and thanks to recent media coverage, <a href =
"http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/">PISA</a> tests. These tests capture the student's learning
at a specific point in time. Tests like this are referred to as summative tests.
</p>
<p>
The true picture is much richer. Another type of assessment, formative assessment, has
an entirely different emphasis. These are ongoing assessments focused on providing
feedback on how effectively the student is learning. This assessment is usually a lower
stakes and lower stress - perhaps not even graded - mechanism. Formative assessment
is also intended to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the teaching process.
At a conceptual level, this might be expected to provide a strong incentive to innovate
in education. Also, well designed feedback would mitigate any risk associated with
innovation by allowing a quick course correction onto a productive path.
</p>
<p>
The technology industry struggles with assessment as well. Particularly telling is
<a href =
"http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in-head-hunting-big-data-may-not-be-such-a-big-deal.html">this
interview</a> with Laszlo Bock, a senior vice president at Google.
</p>
<blockquote>
We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the
interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately
performed in their job. We found zero relationship.
</blockquote>
<p>
This raises fundamental questions about the effectiveness of the interview, aka
assessment, process in the software industry as a whole.
</p>
<blockquote>
One of the things we've seen from all our data crunching is that G.P.A.'s are worthless
as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless — no correlation at all
except for brand-new college grads, where there's a slight correlation.
</blockquote>
<p>
He goes on to explain that the academic environment is highly specialized, and that success
within that context does not imply that someone will be successful within another environment
or context. Both teaching and tech have a critical need to access ability to put knowledge
to work in real world contexts.
</p>
<h4>Iterative Improvement</h4>
<p>
The application of iterations is perhaps the most subtle of the points raised here.
The software engineering world uses iterations in the development process, <i>and
also iteratively improves the process itself</i>. Both the product and process
iterations are driven by assessments, participant feedback, and comparisons against
organizational goals.
</p>
<p>
The current state of education is reminiscent of software engineering before the
acceptance of agile iterative methods. At that point software development was
dominated by inflexible methods characterized by large up front planning.
</p>
<p>
The famous quote from German strategist von Moltke "No Battle Plan Survives Contact
With the Enemy" dramatically captures the need to adjust any plan in the field to
adapt to real world conditions. Software engineering has embraced this need for
continual adaption and seen <a href =
"http://www.rallydev.com/sites/default/files/Agile_Impact_Report.pdf">significant
increases in quality and productivity</a>.
</p>
<p>
These adaptations to the situation on the ground are driven by the people on the ground.
This puts a greater freedom and greater responsibility into the hands of the
practitioner with boots on the ground.
</p>
<p>
Education would profit as well from this shift in emphasis. From up front planning and
set curricula to general goals and continual adaption to the needs of a particular
situation driven by the teacher's own judgment.
</p>
<h4>Personalizing the Experience</h4>
<p>
Education, by its very nature, focuses on presenting new ideas and integrating them
into the audience's mental model. The most successful approach caters the educational
experience to the individual student. The teacher builds a relationship with the student
and adjusts the content to address their individual interests and well as to expand on
their strengths and address their weaknesses. This path is <a href =
"http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED051137.pdf">proven</a> to be <a href =
"http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/edu/88/4/715/">effective</a> and well received
by students and teachers alike.
</p>
<p>
The application of personalized learning is limited by its labor intensive nature.
However, computers can ease the labor requirement in certain cases. The most direct
application is to provide asynchronous communications through email and social media.
The interaction and feedback is still timely, but not always immediate and face to
face.
</p>
<p>
Well designed software provides multiple modes and multiple paths for the learner
to explore different scenarios. This encourages the learner to freely choose their
path through content exercising their interests, and filling in gaps in their
understanding.
</p>
<p>
Several companies carry the concept in another direction with <a href =
"http://mashable.com/2012/07/17/knewton-adaptive-learning/">adaptive learning</a>.
Adaptive learning assesses the state of the students knowledge and further
instruction is focused on their weakest areas. Extensive effort has been put into
allowing automatic identification of the learners problem areas. Indicators include
scores on exams, the time taken to answer questions, or to read through a section,
even eyetracking and body language are sometimes used.
</p>
<p>
The edtech entrepreneur is concerned with personalization from their earliest days.
Almost from the outset, she will be concerned with product market fit, or how the
product addresses the specific needs of the educational community, or that part
of the community they are addressing. This requires building relationships with
educators, administrators, and frequently with students. The entrepreneur must
understand the market's interests and needs, and modify the product to fulfill
those interests and needs. Sound familiar?
</p>
<p>
The parallel continues through the lifetime of the company. In addition to expanding
the relationships with the educational community, the company must cater its advertising
to that market. What is now called targeted and retargeted marketing is essential to
fitting the advertising message to the recipient. <a href =
"https://retargeter.com/what-is-retargeting-and-how-does-it-work">Retargeted
marketing</a> expresses some of the same principles as adaptive learning. Programs track
the actions of the user and collect metrics which are considered effective measures of
their interests. Specific marketing messages are then delivered as guided by the
collected information. Retargeting also makes use of spaced repetition to expose
the potential customer to brand information multiple times. The <a href =
"http://blog.bizo.com/blog/business-audience-marketing/the-powerful-numbers-behind-ad-retargeting">success
rate</a> of retargeted marketing can be taken as a confirmation of the approach.
Perhaps this success can even cast a favorable light on similar approaches for
education.
</p>
<h4>Rigidity and Resistance</h4>
<div class="sidebar">
<!-- Education, by its very nature, focuses on presenting new
ideas and integrating them into the audience's mental model.-->
Teaching and tech are inherently flexible, but are surrounded by
processes, procedures and bureaucracies which generate rigidity.
</div>
<p>
Neither software engineering nor instruction are physical products. Both are
inherently flexible in their application and delivery. However, both are
surrounded by processes, procedures, and bureaucracies that generate rigidity.
</p>
<p>
Software engineering practice is likely more flexible because it is newer, and until
recently was not a major focus of public concern. Education is more foundational to
society and has been, appropriately, a focus of public policy for <a href =
"http://www.raceforward.org/research/reports/historical-timeline-public-education-us">centuries</a>.
This entanglement with public policy sets several, sometimes inconsistent, priorities
and makes it difficult to obtain funding for best practices while political and marketing
forces push in other directions. Education, though, has the advantage that by its very
nature it focuses on presenting new ideas and integrating them into the audience's mental
model.
</p>
<p>
Even the best ideas in the best environment may be slow to <a href =
"http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all">gain
traction</a>. This is compounded in the fields we consider by tremendous ranges in the
effort required and potential profits for different approaches. For example, perhaps
the most widespread edTech application is online testing. A testing framework is applicable
across multiple grades and subjects, and quite frankly does not require any great
innovation to develop. With limited effort, the returns are significant.
</p>
<p>
This contrasts sharply with content creation. Content creation is significantly more
difficult, especially for more advanced material. To be effective, it must be targeted
to a specific level of a specific topic. The effort to create it is greater and the
addressable market, hence the possible profitability, is limited.
</p>
<p>
The MOOC is perhaps a middle ground, but even it makes <a href
= "http://theeducationscientist.blogspot.com/2014/02/khan-academy-and-illusion-of.html">only
limited use of technology</a>, with most of the online content in the form of video clips with
limited interactive content.
</p>
<p>
Changing thought patterns and work styles to make the best use of advancing technology
is difficult. <a href = "http://worrydream.com/">Bret Victor</a> gave an excellent talk
on innovations that didn't catch on in computer science, despite their promise. I close
this section with a quote from that talk that applies equally to teaching and technology.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
It's easy to think that technology is always getting better because of Moor's Law,
because computers are always getting more capable but ideas that require people
to unlearn what they have learned and think in new ways there is often an enormous
amount of resistance.
</p>
<footer><a href = "http://vimeo.com/71278954">Bret Victor - The Future of Programming</a></footer>
</blockquote>
<h4>Silos are common</h4>
<div class="sidebar">
Teaching is an important public trust so the public automatically has standing
in a discussion of teaching standards and practices.
</div>
<p>
The concept of addressing material from multiple viewpoints, across multiple courses, is
gaining traction. It has even found its way into the <a href
= "http://www.corestandards.org/ela-literacy/introduction/key-design-consideration">CCSS</a>,
but there is a long way to go. For example, history and science curricula are rarely developed
in concert. However, in the real world these topics do not play out in isolation. Each
strongly interacts with and depends on the other as they evolve. Curricula that acknowledge
this and that are developed to reflect this interdependence present a truer picture, and
provide a more complete understanding to the learner.
</p>
<p>
Historically, this has not been the case, and it remains rare. Human instinct is to scope out,
mark, and protect territory<sup>1</sup>. This is particularly true for an interloper from another
department, say science, getting involved in the definition of history curricula.
</p>
<p>
An often overlooked aspect of the software engineering evolution is that it owes a great deal
to <a href = "http://www7.gsb.columbia.edu/deming/about/history">W. Edwards Deming</a>. It is
worth it to gain at least a passing familiarity with his work, especially his <a href =
"http://www2.fiu.edu/~revellk/pad3003/Neave.pdf">14 points</a>. Point 9, break down barriers,
directly refers to the need for disparate groups to work together for the benefit of the
system as a whole. To break down silos and gain advantage through cooperation.
</p>
<p>
This strengthens the parallel that I draw between teaching and technology. The technology
sector was able to extract <a href
= "http://www.dennisstevens.com/2010/05/21/whats-deming-got-to-do-with-agile/">relevant core
elements</a> from Demming's work, adapt them to a new discipline, and apply them to their own work.
I suggest that education follow a similar path by adapting some of these core concepts
from both manufacturing and software and applying them to the education culture and process.
</p>
<p>
One critical, but often neglected, silo is that of the profession itself. Technology development is
significantly strengthened by involving both the user and the decision maker in product design and
development. However, this is frequently not the case - indeed, I have seen the technology side's
disdain for the end user harm several products.
</p>
<p>
Similarly I have seen less than welcoming reactions to parents and other outsiders to the teaching
profession getting involved in the teaching practice itself. The teaching profession is an important
public trust, so the public must be seen as automatically having standing in a discussion of teaching
standards and practices. This places a greater responsibility on the teaching profession for public
engagement and education. The educator can educate, not only their students, but their constituents
as well.
</p>
<p>
A monoculture is a close cousin to the silo, and reflects many of the same behavior patterns. Both
are harmful. We can counter these tendencies by including and encouraging visionaries, innovators,
and communicators within our group. The visionary seeking a path to a better future, the innovator
always asking is there a better way, and the communicator drawing in participation from other groups
and casting the language of each group into a form the other can understand. Or better yet,
cultivate some of these skills in ourselves.
</p>
<h4>Patterns and Antipatterns</h4>
<p>
An important set of concepts and techniques in software engineering are the <a href =
"http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/a-beginners-guide-to-design-patterns--net-12752">design patterns</a>.
Patterns can be thought of as best practices to achieve a specific goal in a specific context.
</p>
<p>
Design patterns are a powerful idea that was slow to gain traction. While the concept was
introduced to architecture in 1977, and to software in 1987, it did not gain significant
traction in software for almost another decade. The design patterns work did not introduce
the design patterns themselves, but cataloged and established common names for wide spread
best practices and grouped them into categories. This common vocabulary and taxonomy allows
easier communication and, interestingly, for more effective education.
</p>
<p>
There has been some movement toward <a href =
"http://www2.tisip.no/E-LEN/documents/ELEN-Deliverables/booklet-e-len_design_experience.pdf">a
design pattern catalog for instruction</a>. A truly organically derived education pattern
catalog and its attendant vocabulary and taxonomy of concepts would be a great value to the
profession.
</p>
<p>
A closely related concept is the antipattern. These are common practices that do not represent
effective solutions. Antipatterns frequently appear reasonable, but experience has proven
otherwise. Interestingly, the antipattern concept has been extended to management, and includes
the silo as an organizational antipattern.
</p>
<p>
The antipattern concept may be catching on in education in the form of <a href =
"http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2014/jan/07/myths-brain-education-teaching">recognizing</a>
<a href =
"http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929320.200-separating-neuromyths-from-science-in-education.html">popular
myths</a>. But it can be carried much further.
</p>
<h4>What's Really Important</h4>
<p>
In the 1990's software engineering was flooded with potential solutions to developer
innovation and productivity. So many that it was necessary to take a step back and
summarize what was really important and <i>what was not</i>. The <a href
="http://agilemanifesto.org/">Agile Manifesto</a> and its accompanying <a href
= "http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html">12 principles</a>, is a collection of
fundamental values for the process of creating high quality software.
</p>
<p>
The Agile Manifesto does not specify any specific development methodology. It provides
a set of values and principles that any development methodology should follow. Indeed,
it explicitly promotes adoption of methods and processes that work best with a specific
team in a specific domain.
</p>
<p>
This is reflected in education with the need to adjust instructional techniques to meet
the needs of a particular student or class in learning a specific topic. I recently
encountered <a href = "http://www.paideia.org/about-paideia/philosophy/">The Paideia
Principles</a>, which take a similar approach to teaching, providing a set of principles
rather specifying a fixed methodology. A generally applicable set of principles would
probably be generated and vetted by a larger group.
</p>
<p>
Such a set of principles also provides a powerful tool for communications, focuses public
policy debate, and encourages freedom for individual schools and teachers to manifest
the principles as best suits their environment.
</p>
1) Stack, Robert David, Human Territoriality: Its Theory and History, PP 169-215, Cambridge University Press, 1986Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-29820416343103626952014-01-02T22:14:00.000-08:002014-01-03T14:16:23.436-08:00Hands On Experimentation as a Teaching Tool<p>
The real world is hardly cut and dried, it is full of uncertainties, probabilities, and hypotheses to be
verified. Introducing this into a classroom though, is hardly straightforward. Even adults are sometimes
<a href="http://www.edutopia.org/blog/dealing-with-uncertainty-classroom-students-ben-johnson">unprepared
to deal with uncertainty</a>. And young children are even less well equipped to handle uncertainty.
</p>
<p>
The Common Core State Standards introduce Statistics & Probability in grade 6, and the Next Generation
Science Standards introduce the concept of measurement error and multiple measurements at about the same
time.
</p>
<p>
Laboratory experiments provide a strong example of measurement error and probability and their interaction
with other subjects. Laboratory experiments can be introduced just after probability and measurement error.
</p>
<p>
Hands on work, laboratory work, practical work, it has many names. It has even more benefits. Perhaps so
many benefits that it is sometimes difficult to prioritize them for a given situation<sup>1,2</sup>. Further
many of these benefits are distinct from standard classroom instruction and as a result at times "<i>outcome
measures consisted almost exclusively of paper and pencil achievement tests that were often poorly linked to
the laboratory activities</i>."
</p>
<p>
Not only do we need to be careful in constructing the laboratory component of our instructional content,
we have to be careful how we access its effectiveness. Designing each of these requires a familiarity with
scientific experimentation and the scientific method.
</p>
<p>
We have talked about the contextual sensitivity of knowledge, and the value of presenting the same material
from multiple viewpoints over time. The laboratory experiment exercises both of these principles.
</p>
<p>
The first hand exposure to scientific principles provides a new path to insight on classroom material.
At least as importantly, it necessitates dealing with real world issues such as what it means to validate
<i>or invalidate</i> a hypothesis, dealing with experimental data, presenting experimental results, and
drawing conclusions from experimental results. Entire books have been written on these topics <sup>5,6</sup>.
</p>
<p>
Perhaps the most important of these, and one of the most difficult to grasp, is the need for experimental
verification of reality. This concept lies at the heart of the scientific method, a deep understanding of
which generates much more confidence in science and helps in the ability to differentiate legitimate from
illegitimate claims both inside and outside of science.
</p>
<p>
An effective lab will be designed to illustrate and explore concepts from the other components of the
coursework, better still if they also relate to the broader curriculum.
</p>
<p>
How do we introduce lab work to students? Start early.
<a href="https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-density">This example</a> introduces laboratory
work to 7th graders. While it is highly, and perhaps overly, procedural, it does introduce lab work. For
example, I would not check the student data as soon as it was gathered, I would allow the students to
continue on to the analysis and conclusion, and stress the questions of whether or not the conclusion is
what they expected, and is the conclusion consistent with established science. Then follow up with the
question of why, or why didn't, they expect the result. While this first example may serve as an
introduction to more advanced lab work, it should be clearly understood as such an introduction by both
the students and teachers. Can you see additional ways that this lab could be improved?
</p>
<blockquote>
To many students, a laboratory activity has meant manipulating equipment but not manipulating ideas.
Multiple studies confirm that the frequently observed ritualistic, even 'mindless' student behaviors
observed in many laboratory activities stifle students' personal engagement in decision-making in the
laboratory. These kinds of activities rarely uncover students' underlying beliefs; they do not encourage
students to wrestle with their prior knowledge in making sense of their experiences, and they do not
encourage them to reflect on their own thinking.<sup>3</sup>
</blockquote>
<p>
Contrast the first example with <a href="http://gazettextra.com/article/20131116/ARTICLES/131119755">another
lab</a> where once again middle school students tackle experimental work, but this time in an almost completely
unstructured format. Here the students are confronted with a real world situation, their fish are dying due
to a high pH, which would spike after a few days. When the teachers who had setup they system failed to find
a cause, they involved their students in investigating the mystery. The students now know this is a real world
investigation. According to the article, the students reached out to experts from UW-Milwaukee, who visited
the school and worked with the students. This added more realism and helped the students follow accepted scientific
methodology.
</p>
<blockquote>
'With science, it's got to be hands-on, it's got to be real world,' said Stewart [one of the teachers]. 'Students
did their own research for this, there's a sense of ownership for them.'
</blockquote>
<p>
The real world nature of this lab will be hard to duplicate, but the successful involvement of eighth graders
is promising and inspiring. Involving outside experts lends additional realism. Interestingly, the local cable
company, Time Warner, has <a href="http://www.connectamillionminds.com/">a program to connect practitioners with
educational programs</a>. Perhaps because it is new, there do not seem to be many programs visible in my
geographic area.
</p>
<p>
Most students are best served by a path that touches on elements from both of these examples. For example provide
a clear stage and goals for the lab as in the first example, while drawing the real world relevance and involvement
of the students in designing the actual actions and analysis from the second.
</p>
<p>
The importance of hands on experience and dealing with errors and uncertainty in raw data speaks loudly to the
superiority of actual experimentation over simulations of experimentations. Simulations can provide reinforcement
of classroom material, and have a place in our instructional repertoire. However, they can not provide the
confidence in science and the scientific method that flows from hands on experiments and direct observation.
Fundamentally, simulations behave the way they do because that's how we built them. They are at least a layer
or two of abstraction removed from actual physical reality.
</p>
<ul>
<li>Learning in and from Science Laboratories: Enhancing Students' Meta-Cognition and Argumentation Skills.
Avi Hofstein, Mira Kipnis, Per Kind, in Science Education Issues and Developments. 2008, Nova Science
Publishers, Inc.
</li>
<li>
The Role of Laboratory Work in School Science: Educators' and Students' Perspectives. Dr. Ali Khalfan
Al-Naqbi, Dr. Hassan H. Tairab, Journal of Faculty of Education UAEU. Year 18, Issue No. 22, 2005.
</li>
<li>
Learning and Teaching in the School Science Laboratory: An Analysis of Research, Theory, and Practice.
Vincent N. Lunetta, Avi Hofstein, Michael P. Clough, Handbook of Research on Science Education, 2007,
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
</li>
<li>
The Role of the Laboratory in Science Teaching: Neglected Aspects of Research, Avi Hofstein,
Vincent N. Lunetta, Review of Educational Research, Summer, 1982, Vol. 52, No. 2, Pp 201-217.
</li>
<li>
Statistical Treatment of Experimental Data, Hugh D. Young, 1962, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. Company.
</li>
<li>
Beautiful Evidence, Edward R. Tufte, 2006, Graphics Pr.
</li>
</ul>Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-87166699760060993112013-08-12T16:02:00.000-07:002013-09-10T13:06:38.298-07:00Cross Cutting Concerns<p>
The last entry talked about providing multiple illustrations of overriding themes within a subject. A closely related concept is providing views of the same or similar material, but when viewed through a different lens. In most cases the math, art, history and science curricula are developed in isolation. In reality there is significant overlap and meaningful interaction among these fields. Was Brunelleschi an artist, an architect, or an engineer? Was Leonardo da Vinci an artist or a scientist? Especially with da Vinci, how did these interests interact to produce a greater whole? In a more modern setting, Paul Graham's <a href = "http://my.safaribooksonline.com/0596006624">Hackers & Painters</a> "<a href = "http://avidium.com/wp-content/uploads/books/Speed%20Reviews%20-%20Jan05.pdf">points out that the similarities between hackers and painters are endless</a>". <a href = "http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/james-burke-connections/">James Burke's Connections</a> has as a central theme of unexpected connections among technological advances, science, and economics. The Metropolitan Museum of Art even has <a href = "http://physics.aps.org/articles/v6/83">a science department</a>.
</p>
<p>
I have, for example, a strong memory of visiting the
<a href = "http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/fogg-museum">Fogg Museum</a> at Harvard and seeing connections between <a href = "http://liemn.deviantart.com/art/Hand-Study-51220478">studies</a> and sketches to design patterns and iterative development development in computer software.
</p>
<p>
Remember that the recurring theme for this set of posts is making education more effective in the sense of making it more likely to be employed when encountering real world problems outside of the context of the classroom. Viewing material from multiple viewpoints is highly effective in this cause. Most directly, repetition is known to improve learning and recall of the subject matter. Presentation of material from multiple viewpoints and in multiple contexts increases both the ease with which it is incorporated into the student's existing knowledge base, and the depth of their understanding. It is important that the instruction emphasize that these are related presentations of the overarching theme. As always the students should be deeply involved in discussions about the relationships among the different contexts.
</p>
<p>
It is best if the repetition is separated in time. For example covering the development of the steam engine from an engineering perspective, then a couple of months later covering it from an economic perspective.
</p>
<p>
In addition to promoting both a deeper and broader understanding, this approach also strengthens motivation for understanding fields not obviously related to a student's central interests. A student interested in economics might ask why they should study physics. Now this style of teaching would show that economic concerns frequently set the tone for scientific progress, and that scientific progress frequently enables entire new economies. High speed communications enables corporations to be distributed over the entire planet, and brings many cultures closer together. Efficient transportation allows the distribution of manufacturing, and also the distribution of resources - especially in a time of crisis.
</p>Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-27992834288208319582013-07-19T23:02:00.000-07:002013-07-19T23:02:41.819-07:00<p>
Another technique that I have had good success with is presenting the same abstract principle in significantly different contexts. It is important that the link between the examples and the general principle be explicit, understood by, and ideally discussed by the audience. The best results I have seen is when some of the audience provide the explanation themselves, perhaps with a little bit of coaching. This has additional benefits such as engaging the audience as an active participant in their own learning, and demonstrating to the audience that the material can be understood by their peers. This has been a subject of some interesting recent research<sup>1,2</sup> – indeed, reading this is what got me started writing about this topic. Relevance makes an appearance again – examples that are relevant to, or memorable for your audience are more effective.
</p>
<p>
In physics conservation principles such as the conservation of momentum and conservation of energy are stressed early with multiple examples from mechanics and electromagnetism. After four of five years these and other fundamental principles are ingrained into the learner's thought patterns.
</p>
<p>
Most disciplines lack such overarching principles so more effort is required to identify and incorporate abstractions into the learning process. Computer science, for example, has my favorite abstract principles, the concept of abstraction, and its child, the layered architecture. However, it is easy, perhaps even common, to focus to tools and algorithms while losing site of these important principles. To teach them in a way that is usable throughout the learners career requires that the abstractions be revisited with a clear discussion on how the principle manifests in each specific situation.
</p>
<p>
<i>
1) <a href="http://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/gentner/papers/GentnerLoewensteinThompson04.pdf">Analogical Encoding: Facilitating Knowledge Transfer and Integration</a>, Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual meeting of the cognitive science society
<br>
2) <a href="http://business.illinois.edu/loewenstein/papers/Gentneretal%20JEP03.pdf">Learning and Transfer: A General Role for Analogical Encoding</a>, Journal of Educational Psychology 2003, Vol. 95, No. 2, 393– 408
</i>
</p>Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-63459558296373492692013-07-10T23:21:00.000-07:002013-07-10T23:21:03.062-07:00Putting knowledge – and education – to use.<div style="float:left;font:Georgia,serif;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;max-width:40%;padding-bottom:1em;color:DarkGreen">
This same principle has fascinating implications in the hiring process and in ethics.
</div>
<p>
People's ability to bring knowledge to bear on a problem as strongly dependent on the context of the problem. In software engineering I frequently raise an issue only to be countered with “I already know that”. <i>Yes, but you are not employing that knowledge in your work.</i> Knowing something about a topic, and indeed being able to discuss it fluently, is not the same as being able to employ that knowledge in a real world situation. Here, Joe Kraus, the founder of Excite, currently with Google Ventures, describes experts and "<a href = "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15iWltPLuPY#t=18m8s">the mismatch between what they say is important, and what they actually do</a>". This same phenomenon is commonly referred to in instruction as Transfer of Learning or Generalization. Understanding and addressing this is critical for effective instruction, instruction that can be employed out of the classroom in the real world, or even to disparate problems within the classroom that are manifestations of an underlying principle.
</p>
<p>
Of course I expect that many of you are saying "I already know that". But are you actively putting your knowledge to work? Are you measuring the effectiveness of your techniques?
</p>
<p>
What might some of those techniques be? Consider for example priming the pump – setting students into the frame of mind where they can see where the lessons will go, and how the material is relevant to the real world, especially their specific real world interests. Take a few minutes out of the last lesson of the week to give some pointers on what the next week will cover. Include comments guided by the known interests of the students. Yes – this means getting to know what drives your students. They will be thinking about the questions or applications from the preview all throughout your lessons. Also, cast the preview in a form that makes it clear that these goals are achievable by them. When I give a lecture I provide an abstract designed to get your attention and show the value of the talk. At the beginning I will provide an overview and touch on the relevance of the talk to your real world concerns. During the talk I will talk about applications, and if possible engage some of the audience members in a discussion about issues and applications important to them. I can remember when I was teaching and I employed these techniques then to good effect. OK, I admit I didn't generate any abstracts for my students.
</p>
<p>
More soon...
</p>
Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-17681361945819618842013-06-25T19:42:00.001-07:002013-09-19T14:39:11.375-07:00Expanded The Catalog To Include Charged Planes<figure style="float:left;width:215px;margin:5; padding:0;">
<iframe seamless width="210" height="220"
allowTransparency="true"
src="http://vizit.github.io/catalog/positivelyChargedPlaneWithNegativeCharge/index.html">
</iframe>
<figcaption>The electric field from the positively charged plane
converges towards a negative charge.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>
The growth of the <a href = "http://vizit.github.io/efield/">efield toolkit</a> and associated <a href="http://vizit.github.io/catalog/">visualization catalog</a> continues. I have added the ability to represent charged planes and also the ability to automatically generate field lines. The visualization catalog now includes several examples of charged planes, parallel charged planes, and point charges and planes.
</p>
<p>
Of course both the toolkit and the catalog are released under the popular open source <a href = "http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html">Apache License (V2)</a>.
</p>
<p>
Clearly the choice of positions for the field lines needs some work. It is not particularly bad, but the hand positioned lines from the earlier examples present superior illustrations of the physics. The old method will continue to work, but at least for the case of the charged plane the automatic generation of the field lines is excellent.
</p>
<p>
It is also clear that some time should soon go into optimizing the representation and drawing of the field lines. Each line is currently represented as one vertex array, and drawn with one drawArrays call. It seems I should be able to batch these and generate several field lines with one drawArrays call.
</p>Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-45108866493880345762013-05-25T00:08:00.001-07:002013-05-25T00:08:19.635-07:00Renovated The Web Site The original web presence was put up to give me a little bit to show around while I was at SXSW. Recently, I had the opportunity to take a bit of time and implement some upgrades. It includes a much more modern style overall, some additional exposition about the importance of visualization in learning mathematics and the sciences, and perhaps the most significant upgrade, a <a href="http://www.vizitsolutions.com/portfolio/catalog/">catalog</a> of prepared visualizations. Each visualization is contained in a small web page hosted on GitHub, and is suitable for inclusion in content as an iframe. Each one has a built in help, and if the browser does not support WebGL, the visualization loads a PNG image of the visualization with a yellow warning icon indicating that WebGL is not active on the browser. The warning icon links to instructions for enabling WebGL on your system. This makes it very easy to get started and determine that visualization really does have an impact on your learners.Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-74099496547149259092013-04-17T13:55:00.003-07:002013-04-17T15:02:40.359-07:00<figure style="float:right;margin:0; padding:0;">
<iframe seamless width="210px" height="210px" src="http://www.vizitsolutions.com/portfolio/efield/miniSphere.html"></iframe>
<figcaption><i>A Gaussian surface within a charged distribution.</i><figcaption>
</figure>
<p>
The addition of charged distributions and Gaussian surfaces provides for much more sophisticated visualizations. This example includes a a charged sphere with inner radius a=20 and outer radius b=50. At the center of the charged sphere is a Gaussian surface of radius 10. Zoom in on the image to see that the electric field does not penetrate the Gaussian surface, and that the Gaussian surface is completely within the hollow center of the sphere.
</p>
<p>
Working through the details to get a reasonable appearance for nested translucent objects without complex rendering was definitely challenging.
</p>Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-59192871426152579752013-04-01T15:22:00.000-07:002013-04-01T15:22:06.534-07:00SXSW Feedback<p>
I was able put together a proof of concept and show it off to a lot of people at SXSW, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Based on that feedback I have <a href="http://www.vizitsolutions.com/portfolio/efield/">expanded the documentation</a>, made the project easier to use and more modular, and put it out as <a href="https://github.com/VizIT/efield">an open source project on GitHub</a>.
</p>
<p>
Next I will be adding the ability to specify charge densities, such as a charged sphere, line, plane or ring, and also the ability to automatically generate the field lines without needing to specify a starting point to trace the field lines.
</p>
<p>
I also spent some time covering some fascinating material on the interplay between neuroscience and learning. One of the talks drew an interesting car analogy. To paraphrase, pedagogy and psychology are like learning to drive fast, where neuroscience is like opening the hood and understand how the car achieves it's speed. This would undoubtedly make you a better driver.
</p>
<p>
Some of the more interesting items included
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKAERRsNaak">The Neuroscience of Language and Learning</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKFjoF-YO20">Neuroscience, Games & Learning</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-bZidebHmA">Neuroscience, the Science of Learning, Educational Reform</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxcyt5UqiCA">Educational Neuroscience: How Education Shapes Brain Development</a></li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
Well, after digesting all that I am going to work out the code to display a charge distribution on a web page – that
means a volumetric rendering that will function well on highly limited devices such as a cell phone.
</p>Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-70726860157315391192013-02-25T22:37:00.002-08:002013-09-19T14:39:35.265-07:00Illustrating the concept<figure style="float:right;margin:0; padding:0;">
<iframe seamless width="210px" height="220px" src="http://www.vizitsolutions.com/portfolio/efield/minipage.html"></iframe>
<figcaption><i>This interactive rendering is generated by<br /> HTML5 JavaScript and WebGL.</i><figcaption>
</figure>
A quick internet search for electric field will show a large number images. Most of which are
similar to the initial appearance of the example on this page. However, the electric field is an
intrinsically three dimensional phenomenon. Making the leap from the standard two dimensional
representation to a three dimensional understanding is difficult at best.
So start with a clear three dimensional representation. With OpenGL ES on Android or iOS, or with
WebGL as done here, a much better representation can be presented. This image rotates and zooms in
response to many of the standard browser actions such as a mouse or a finger drag. Though the touch
interaction has only been tested under Chrome and Firefox on Android. This provides a differing three
dimensional view that shifts in direct response to the user or learner action. This allows a very fast
comprehension of the three dimensional nature of the field.
This is an early proof of concept to show the general class of examples that can be generated, and
with the right choices in the software design, it is easy to modify the presented example and
incorporate it into existing content.
Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-82311385732820395942013-02-21T15:30:00.000-08:002013-07-01T15:24:32.051-07:00Why Visualization<br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> I can remember the first program I ever wrote when I was about 11 or 12. It solved a physics problem from one of my father's books: <i>m</i>=<i>m</i><sub>0</sub>(1-<i>v</i>²/<i>c</i>²)<sup>½</sup>. </span><span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The program produced a lot of numbers for <i>v</i> and <i>m</i>, but this table of numbers did not provide any great insights. So I decided to graph them. Seeing the the curve of m running to infinity rapidly as <i>v</i> gets close to <i>c</i> immediately gave me a deeper understanding of what the equation really means.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> A few years later in my first real job – the same thing but on a bigger scale. Doing computational physics at the <a href="https://blogs.princeton.edu/reelmudd/2011/04/princeton-plasma-physics-laboratory-an-overview/">Princeton Plasma Physics Lab</a>. This code produced massive sets of numbers, and once again, simply looking at the numbers was not the best way to digest the data. So we graphed them. Of course we checked the numbers to ensure that the calculations were correct, but the real understanding came from the visualizations. And all of the publications and presentations used the visualizations.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> A few more years later and I was visiting the <a href="http://www.sdsc.edu/">San Diego Supercomputer Center</a>, and I saw a large screen displaying an interactive three dimensional model of a molecule. I can remember having the flash – wow this would be great for teaching. I knew immediately that many of the advanced mathematics and physics concepts I had struggled with would be understood much clearer much faster if quality visualizations were available.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Now, graphics capability which was once the exclusive province of large institutions can be carried in your hand. We have a strong focus on STEM education, we have the Internet as a distribution medium, and we even have a graphics API embedded in most browsers. It is a great time to bring together all of this knowledge and experience with the desire to make a difference and build first class visualizations targeted to instruction.</span>Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7845501502628865936.post-44005646154838645572013-02-18T01:25:00.003-08:002013-02-18T01:25:42.589-08:00A 30 Second Pitch<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://www.vizitsolutions.com/">VizIT Solutions</a> produces high quality
visualizations for instruction in mathematics and the sciences.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> First rate instruction clearly
presents material to the learner, further it engages and invites them to question and explore. Interactive
visualizations are one of the most powerful, rapidly evolving, and
underutilized methods to achieve this. We need to do better.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Mobile and games technologies have
placed powerful graphics capabilities literally in our hands. We will exploit this to generate a new generation of instructional content
particularly
well suited for intrinsically three dimensional material such as
electric and magnetic fields.</span></div>
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Alex Klugehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511470822855731608noreply@blogger.com0