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TEL2 - final writing assignment Bram Bruggeman

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For curating resources in the TEL2 module, I will use a Diigo list: https://www.diigo.com/list/brambruggeman/TEL2/2qk3yrbr4

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Wiki Task 3:
What theories and literature exist that explain, predict, and/or guide the development and use of TELEs?

A specific question about existing literature and by intuition I was reminded of The International Handbook of Teaching ICT in Primary and Secondary Education. I knew this was in our library at school, but I had forgotten about it for some time (silly me).

OMG, what a revelation! Quite expensive, that must be said. 539.54 euro for over a thousand pages of literature around ICT in education. Yummie. Very useful for my final writing assignment, to say the least.

Some extracts:

CASCADE-SEA (Computer ASsisted Curriculum Analysis, Design and Evaluation for Science Education in Africa).

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Wiki Task 3 - What literature exists ... Int'l Handbook for Teaching ICT ...

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Wiki Task 3:What theories and literature exist that explain, predict, and/or guide the development and use of TELEs? A specific question about existing literature and by intuition I was reminded of The International Handbook of Teaching ICT in Primary and Secondary Education.

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Task 2: What are the criteria by which TELEs can be evaluated? Create hyperlinked pages, that describe your experience of using two TELEs and critically examine the enabling and hindering...

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Task 1: What are technology learning environments? Create hyperlinked pages that outline the types, characteristics, terminology, application and uses of TEL environments Two...

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The fun they had

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During the first #telic1 session, Claire raised a good question about Twitter being a learning environment, or not.

I have been thinking about this during the past week and I agree with Ian that we first need to define what a learning environment is. In fact, the more basic question is: 'what is learning?'. A lot has already been said and written on this matter and I'm not intending to cover everything here on the subject, but it is very valuable to sum up some definitions of 'learning' in order to get back to the question about Twitter being a learning environment.
"Learning is a goal-directed act. Learning is acquiring new, or modifying existing knowledge, behaviours, skills, values or preferences... Learning is not compulsory; it is contextual ."
In this definition I definitely see my Twitter activities as 'learning'. I have consciously defined my own goals: being able to connect to others, and professionally develop myself.

Definition of a Learning Lab In Ghent Uni:

"Learning can be defined as 'changes in the behavior of an organism that result from regularities in the environment of the organism".(1)

Here also, Twitter often has changed my behaviour and that is more the result from regularity rather than a one-moment-tweet or situation (although it also has happened that one tweet changed, influenced my behaviour in the long term).

So, considering these definitions, Twitter is a learning environment but I agree with the question that Ian puts as a conclusion: perhaps a learning environment is only as good as we make it? Not the tool itself is most important but how the learner uses the tool. And this tweet of Charlie Palmgren could not be more spot on ...

@brambruggeman The wise person can learn anywhere, anytime, from anything or anyone. Learning is a function of the "learner" not the context
- Charlie Palmgren (@CharliePalmgren) October 15, 2013

Apart from the definition of learning it is interesting to look at the conditions that facilitate the learning for me. Charlie Palmgren writes in his book " The Ascent of the Eagle " about the Creative Interchange process and the conditions needed for this process. Simply put, creative interchange is a process in which human beings are working together at their best. And the conditions are: mutual intrinsic worth, trust, curiosity, connectivity and tenacity.(2)

Daniel Willingham also mentions the importance of the right conditions for learning. "People are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking." (3)

The conditions that facilitate my Twitter learning are:

1. Trust: the willingness to risk sharing some of the best 'stuff' I have, and the humility to be open and receptive to what others bring and say on Twitter.

2. Curiosity: exploring and appreciating new ideas on Twitter. Even if they sometimes seem contradictory to my own thinking (at first).

3. Connectivity: I love creating links between Twitter ideas and my own situation. Using my imagination to build upon those Twitter connections to create new ideas and solutions (learning with Twitter is a goal-directed act, indeed).

4. Tenacity: the discipline and practice it takes to make new thinking into sustainable habits. Also, showing commitment to engage myself in Twitter discussions, and practicing with new tools such as bufferapp.com, diigo.com to curate my resources etc. Showing tenacity to stop with Twitter once and awhile, because it can be quite addictive.

Conclusion: Twitter is a learning environment but the conditions that facilitate the learning are more important than the tool itself.

(1) De Houwer, J., Barnes-Holmes, D., Moors, A., 2013. What is learning? On the nature and merits of a functional definition of learning. Psychon Bull Rev.

(2) Palmgren, C., 2008. The Ascent of the Eagle, p. xiv.

(3) Willingham, D., 2009. Why don't students like school?, p.3.

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During the first #telic1 session, Claire raised a good question about Twitter being a learning environment, or not. I have been thinking about this during the past week and I agree with Ian that we first need to define what a learning environment is. In fact, the more basic question is: 'what is learning?'.

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Reflection after session 3.

At the end of each #telic1 session we are asked to give a keyword that expresses our feeling. Last Thursday I said 'hungry'. Not only because I really was hungry :-), but mainly because the word expressed my feeling of wanting answers to the difficult Lave paper. This paper contains a lot, and we all read the paper, reflected on it, created digital artefacts and presented them.

But what do Richard and Guy think of this? What is the essence of this paper we should take with us? Should we try to grasp everything in this paper? Are we on track? Etc.
Feeling in need for feedback... A feeling I'm expressing in this post, but will also mention that to R & G in person.
It is a fundamental fact of human nature that we are inquisitive. We want answers! ¹
Why is that?
On feedback.
Because having answers creates order in our conscious minds. The scientific quest is to discover the order in the external world of space, time, energy and matter. The spiritual quest is to discover order in our consciousness. ²

Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement, but this impact can be either positive or negative. (Hattie, 2007) ³ It is essential how I look towards this experience. I can either push this towards an opportunity to learn, or I can point towards R & G for not giving me feedback.

Not 'what' overcomes us, but 'how' we look at it makes us feel as we feel.

Secondly, the type of feedback is less important. Nearly any type of feedback can be valuable, only if there is a logical link with the challenge in which my mental energy is invested. ⁴

Two types of feedback brought me back to the optimal experience of flow in the telic Msc programme:

1. I looked differently at the reading assignments. It is not per se about "all" the contents in the papers, but they contain links with the summative assignment of writing a paper: 'Learning always takes place in social contexts but is inevitably an individual achievement'.

2. My fellow-in-critical-reading-three Claire was smart enough to ask for feedback. After having contacted her (thanks Claire) she told me it was better to focus on one aspect in a paper than trying to tackle the whole thing. And relying on our common sense and instincts is more important.

I'm looking forward to reading the next paper this week.

It's a puzzle, Richard said. Well, let's start with the corner pieces: instinct and common sense, learning, social, individual achievement.

1. http://snap.lbl.gov/science/why.php

2. http://www.pkrishna.org/Science-Spirituality.html

3. http://growthmindseteaz.org/files/Power_of_Feedback_JHattie.pdf

4. (freely translated from) Csikszentmihalyi, Optimal Experience of Flow, 1999, p.85

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About being hungry, feedback and seeing differently #telic1

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Reflection after session 3. At the end of each #telic1 session we are asked to give a keyword that expresses our feeling. Last Thursday I said 'hungry'. Not only because I really was hungry :-), but mainly because the word expressed my feeling of wanting answers to the difficult Lave paper.

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In the #telic1 program we get all kinds of supporting materials. We received extra information on reading critically and academic reading in general. I've made a simple diagram in an attempt to...

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Critical reading number 4 is this paper ' Distributed cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research' ¹

The main idea in the paper is the following: cognition happens inside and outside humans, the theory says that 'cognitive activity is constructed both from internal and external resources, and that the meaning of our actions is grounded in the context of the activity.' ² This in contrast to more traditional cognitive theories that focus more on the mental activity with the individual. Distributed cognition encompasses interactions between people ánd with resources and materials in the environment. When technology is well designed, the technology becomes integrated into the way people think, see and control activities.

The authors also want to provide an integrated approach/framework for research that combines ethnographic observation and controlled experimentation as a basis for design of digital work. When designing digital materials you should take into account this idea of distributed cognition. If not, you simply re-design the old model.

Let me try and make the main idea and the framework for design clear to you with two examples.

But first, important to understand the meaning of the words ... What is 'cognition' actually?

Cognition is the mental process of 'knowing', including awareness, perception, reasoning or judgment. As Charlie Palmgren says it: 'Cognition is the mental process used when modifying, inventing, constructing and transforming our mental models. It uses existing knowledge and new information generated through awareness and appreciation.' ³

Mobile technology and feedback

'Just as a blind's person's cane or a cell biologist's microscope is a central part of the way they perceive the world, so well-designed work materials become integrated into the way people think, see, and control activities, part of the distributed system of cognitive control.' ⁴

So, likewise (although the comparison with the blind man is a bit off track), my smartphone and tablet are fundamental devices that are integrated in the way I think and work. For example giving feedback to students' work on GooglePlus is much more easier, effective and instant than when using a PC when I log in in the evening. Or how sharing some thoughts on Twitter, helping some tweeps or picking up some new information on Twitter, is essential for how I perceive my job as an educator. The meaning of my actions is shaped by the mobile techology.

Design digital material

We too often see information and cognitive activity as lineair. From point A, over point B to point C. This is not how we cognition works. For example the way we use the browser: scrolling back and forth between pages to find information. Pad++ is an experimental software system to support exploration of dynamic multiscale interfaces. It provides zooming and panning with structured information to create a dynamic way of browsing. The software allows you to exploit computational mechanisms effectively. In tasks requiring returns to prior pages, users of PadPrints (based on Pad++) completed tasks in 61.2% of the time required by users of the same browser without PadPrints. ⁵

What does this mean for the design of learning materials? Consider distributed cognition when you think of learning materials and start designing it. It will (at least) make you wonder about how we use technology to shape our mental models. Instead of using new technologies to develop old-style-learning-materials such as the 'Bordboek'. A 'board-book' is an interactive handbook developed by educational publishers. An example via this link. But let's be honest: this is still so teacher centred, and does not take into account the dynamic relations between people and their (mobile) technologies, nor the way young people contruct their mental models.

1. J. Hollan, E. Hutchins and D. Kirsch.
2. p.179, last but one paragraph
3. Charlie Palmgren, not published.
4. p. 178, second paragraph from the top
5. http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/pad++/papers/hypertext-98-padprints/

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Critical reading number 4 is this paper ' Distributed cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research' 1 The main idea in the paper is the following: cognition happens inside and outside humans, the theory says that 'cognitive activity is constructed both from internal and external resources, and that the meaning of our actions is grounded in the context of the activity.'

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Two posts

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Lave -  Teaching as Learning in Practice

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Lave -  Teaching as Learning in Practice

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Two posts on the paper

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Two posts on the paper